In my last lesson, I encouraged you to start noticing the repetitive work in your day.
Every time you catch yourself thinking, “I have to do this again,” pay attention.
But noticing repetition is only the beginning.
Just because you do something repeatedly doesn’t automatically mean you should automate it.
So how do you know whether a repetitive task might actually be a good candidate for automation?
In my professional work with process improvement and automation, we use three gates to help answer that question.
They’re designed for evaluating processes in a professional environment, but I think the basic questions are incredibly useful outside of that environment, too.
And you don’t need to know anything about building automations to start asking them.
📺 Watch the video below
Gate #1: Is There a Human Activity That Is Repeated?
This is where we started in the previous lesson.
Look for something a person is doing repeatedly.
Maybe every time a particular email arrives, you copy information from it.
Maybe every Monday you check the same website.
Maybe every time an order comes in, you update the same spreadsheet.
Maybe once a month you gather the same information and put it into a report.
The important word here is repeated.
If something happens once, there’s probably nothing to automate.
But if you find yourself following the same process again and again, it’s worth taking a closer look.
This doesn’t mean:
“I’ve done this twice, so I need an automation.”
It means:
“I keep doing this. Let me pay attention to what I’m actually doing.”
Gate #2: If It Requires Human Judgment, Can the Rules Be Clearly Defined?
This is where things get more interesting.
Some repetitive activities are straightforward.
Take this information from here and put it there.
But other activities require a decision.
That’s where you need to ask:
How am I making that decision?
Could I clearly explain the rules to someone else?
For example:
“If the order has shipped, send the customer the tracking information. If it hasn’t shipped, don’t send anything yet.”
That’s a decision, but the rule behind the decision can be clearly explained.
Compare that with something like:
“Read this message and decide whether the person seems upset and whether I should personally call them.”
That’s a very different kind of judgment.
There may be technology that can help with parts of that process, but I would think about it very differently because human judgment and relationships matter.
The question isn’t simply whether there’s a decision.
The question is whether the rules behind that decision can be clearly defined.
Gate #3: Does the Activity Get and Put Information in the Same Places Each Time?
Now think about where the information comes from and where it needs to go.
Is that predictable?
Maybe information always comes from a particular type of email and gets entered into the same spreadsheet.
Maybe you always retrieve information from one system and put it into another.
Maybe a form is submitted and certain information from that form always needs to go to the same place.
Predictability matters.
If the information is coming from somewhere completely different every time and needs to go somewhere different every time, the process becomes much harder to define.
But when you can say:
“The information comes from here, and it needs to go there.”
you’ve identified another characteristic that may make the activity worth exploring for automation.
Let’s Put All Three Together
Imagine this:
Every time a certain type of email arrives, you open it and read several pieces of information.
Based on clearly defined rules, you determine what needs to happen.
Then you enter information into the same spreadsheet.
Now let’s run that through the three gates.
Is there a repeated human activity?
Yes.
If judgment is required, can the rules be clearly defined?
Yes.
Does the activity get information from and put information into the same places each time?
Yes.
That doesn’t automatically mean we should run out and build an automation.
But now we have a very good reason to investigate whether technology could handle some or all of that work.
Notice What We Haven’t Talked About Yet
We haven’t picked a tool.
We haven’t decided whether this needs Zapier, Power Automate, an AI Assistant or something else.
We haven’t built anything.
That’s intentional.
One of the biggest mindset shifts I want you to make is to stop beginning with:
“What can this tool automate?”
Instead, begin with:
“What am I repeatedly doing?”
Then understand the process.
THEN look for the right technology.
Don’t be loyal to the tool.
Be loyal to the outcome.
What About AI?
AI Assistants are making this conversation particularly interesting because technology is becoming capable of handling work that doesn’t always fit perfectly into the traditional, rigid automation model.
That doesn’t make these three questions obsolete.
It makes them a useful starting point.
Understanding whether an activity is repeated, how decisions are made, and where information comes from and goes gives you a much clearer picture of the work you’re trying to improve.
Then you can decide what kind of technology—if any—makes sense.
Automation Isn’t About Removing People
There’s another question I personally like to layer on top of these three gates:
Does this part of the process actually need ME?
That’s not one of the three gates I’m describing here. It’s part of my own philosophy about how I use technology.
I don’t want to automate relationships just because I can.
I don’t want technology replacing the parts of my work where another person benefits from an actual human being.
But repetitive administration?
That’s where I’m very interested in getting some time back.
Automate the administration.
Keep the relationship.
Your Next Step
Go back to the repetitive tasks you’ve started noticing.
Choose ONE.
Don’t research tools yet.
Instead, run the activity through these three questions:
1. Is there a human activity that is repeated during the process?
2. If the activity requires human judgment, can the judgment rules be clearly defined?
3. Does the activity pull and put data from and in the same place every time?
You may discover that the activity isn’t a great candidate for automation.
That’s useful information.
Or you may look at all three questions and think:
Wait a minute.
Why AM I still doing this manually?
And that’s when things start getting interesting.
Technology doesn’t have to be scary. Sometimes we just need to understand the work before we ask technology to do it.