To Automate or Not to Automate?

I would describe myself as a cautious fan of automation. I love automation, but that comes with a huge dollop of hesitation. And so, I often ask the question “To automate or not to automate?”. Because automating things comes with the benefit of removing the need for any input from you. This can be a huge time saver. BUT, automation removes the intentionality of human input and that has some huge risks involved.

What do we mean by automation?

In every day life and work, automation means the process by which tasks are completed automatically by a computer or machine, or by which things are organised automatically by a machine. This is as opposed to being done manually by a person.

For example, you could set up Direct Debits to pay recurring bills. So, your utility bills, or your credit card bill, all get paid automatically and you don’t ever need to think about these. It just happens.

If you think about it, setting up ‘recurring tasks’ in your task manager, is an automation. You complete the Task in ToDoist and ToDoist automatically changes the due date based on your criteria.

But there are more complex examples of automation out there. For example, I have seen an automation set up whereby a person will set up a means of recording a meeting and that recording is…