Daily Dose 39: Automate

When we hire the appliance repair man or the car mechanic, the doctor or the consultant, what are we paying for? Sometimes we are paying for their specialized tools and their access to replacement parts. Sometimes we are paying for the concentrated practice that has made them an expert. Always we are paying for their ability to quickly assess and diagnose what needs attention. In a word, we are hiring expertise, and at a hundred dollars an hour, the operative word is quickly. In our homes, and personal lives, we are (or ought to be) the experts who must quickly assess whether automation or attention is needed.

Whether a priority takes cannon ball, shot, or sand time, often depends on its related activities and responsibilities that range through a spectrum of those we can automate and those we must attend. Accurately assessing which is which is step one in expertise.

Prime Candidates for Automation

Applying concentrated practice to an unfamiliar area to automate some attend activities is a real option, but is also another story for another time. The first order of business is thinking about the obvious candidates for automation, routine and repetitive activities. A few home-sphere activities fall into that category wouldn’t you say?

Such activities are the time gainers, because they can be streamlined, built into a multitask sequence, or made more efficient with better equipment and thought-out routines. Knowing how long it takes to do a task to our level of satisfaction gives us options:

1. We can give tasks the time they need AND NO MORE.
2. We can transfer any found time to more significant responsibilities.
3. We will give tasks the time they need, period.
4. We can “plug-and-play” with known-time tasks and available time slots.
5. We can hold trainees/apprentices/ourselves to a precise, objective task standard.
6. We can initiate a review when a task deviates from the expected time frame.
7. We can combine tasks into coordinated processes.

Give such tasks the time they need, but no more

Time efficiency comes from Number 1: not spending more time than needed on a task, but time effectiveness comes from Number 3: giving adequate time to a task. Not putting in the minimum time necessary can set off a chain reaction of unintended consequences in other areas. We can quickly find ourselves in a world of hurt when we realize too late the connection between something we neglected with other important or valuable priorities.

An Example

Let’s step into the kitchen for a quick example. Everyone knows it takes some time for food preparation.  Cooking devotees need to guard against investing too much time preparing for functional eating (#1). But cooking haters cannot  automate food preparation out of existence (#3) without large health and financial stewardship problems appearing just over the horizon.

Automating parts of food preparation give both devotees and haters found time (#2). Developing basic weekly menus can help automate food shopping (#7). Even three planned cooking hours can provide breakfast foods, cooked meats, or prepared vegetables for many days of streamlined food preparation (#4, #5, #6).

An Example in the Example

Connecting related activities helps automate easily neglected areas (#3, #7). Consider the benefits of habitually connecting the refrigerator tidy-up with garbage collection day:

• no forgotten food lost in the back of the frig for six weeks: more refrigerator space
• less food waste in the garbage can for a whole week: less interest for foraging animals
• a readily overlooked activity merges with a weekly flagpole event: people other than you can know what to do when
• increased likelihood of using fresh supplies and leftovers: money and, often, time saved
• fewer storage containers needed: neater container storage
• freshly wiped shelves: less work getting ready for company or less chagrin when they open the refrigerator (!)
• becomes a routine activity: can be timed trialed

Think of the pleasure of living in a home where increasing foresight, new habit nurturing, and systematic executive oversight make building such connections, well, automatic.