Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff

by Aytekin Tank

Learn to automate your busywork and focus on what really matters

In Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Jotform Aytekin Tank delivers a can’t-miss blueprint to help you make the most of your most precious asset: time. You’ll explore what’s possible when you offload repetitive tasks, why automation has democratized innovation, and how you can use cheap―or even completely free―no-code automation tools to transform your ability to focus on what truly matters in your business and life.

In the book, you’ll discover:

-Why the future of business is no-code, and how you can use an automation-first mindset to unlock your productivity potential
-How to move from busywork to less work, and finally to having the time you need to accomplish your most important work
-How you can use delegation and automation to achieve “timefulness,” the state of having enough time

A must-read handbook for every entrepreneur, founder, business owner, and freelancer who just doesn’t have enough hours in the day, Automate Your Busywork will also earn a place in the libraries of managers, executives, and other business leaders looking to maximize their most valuable resource.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Productivity, Self Help, Audiobook, Personal Development, Reference

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 16, 2023

Reviews

[Avi Poje · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this book from a Tiago Forte newsletter. The premise is that you can free up your time to do more important work by automating the less important tasks in your life. He excitedly shared his “automation flywheel” which was an iterative look at implementing and improving processes. The world becomes a workflow if you think hard enough about it.

He tried hard not to sell his own JotForm products, but mentioned it often anyway. I imagine this book won’t last long before many of his references become outdated. Such is the nature of technology. He helpfully included search terms instead of just program names.

Overall, while I agree with Tank in principle, very few of the examples resonated with me. I wanted to like the book more, but it felt too generic to excite me.

[Adam Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for its target audience, which I think is probably no-code entrepreneurs running businesses with few people. It will be an eye-opener for people who are simply unaware of the general state of what's possible these days or who have no curiosity about what the systems they use every day can do beyond the one thing they themselves use it for.

Personally, I would love to see a resource that is pitched between this and all-out coding...I guess a low-code equivalent that extends the guidance on automation of various tasks to more niche areas...but I understand that commercially speaking that book is unlikely to be written.

It will be useful for some of my colleagues though, so as something I can signpost people to, it is nice and clear and will serve to broaden horizons and ambition.

[Æ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minimal solutions for STEM professionals.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am definitely not the target audience for this book but I think the main point of trying to automate more.

What I've learned

"each time you switch your attention, it takes 17 minutes to totally focus on your new task."

"According to Tank, completing numerous small tasks creates an illusion of accomplishment that masks the fact that you’re neglecting more important work"

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful tips into automating busy work, but will I do it??? Who the f knows!?!?!? But maybe…

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book and I wish the mainstream media pushed books like this but obviously they will continue to market those "you are a loser if you don't wake up at 5am" non-sense and make us all feel like a failure. I found this book very actionable. 4 days in and I'm making some healthy progress towards applying the Automation Flywheel which is the framework at the center of the book. Aytekin Tank offers insights that are as enlightening as they are practical, painting a picture of a man who not only talks the talk but walks the walk. I love his vision for a future where busywork is a thing of the past. Highly recommended

[Josh Berthume · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read this book for work at Swash Labs. I really like the big ideas discussed in this book, primarily the idea of taking a serious look at the work you do every day and splitting tasks into "meaningful" and "busywork" piles. This is a refined version of the approach I took to get out of my own way in running my own business.

I never like the tactical stuff in business books because it always seems overly prescriptive or like it doesn't apply enough to be useful. Your mileage will vary. But there are solid big ideas in this book that are worth considering if you want to spend more time at work doing stuff you like or is meaningful and less time doing things you hate or that occupy too much of your attention.

[Abel Mora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tank writes a great appendix-type automation/workflow planning book, and delivers exactly what he promises.

The title might appear overly promising or clickbaity to some readers but it's an excellent reminder on low-code automation strategy planning.

As an employer, reviewing this book has helped our team to reinforce our internal process audit stages, add some cool new ideas, and serve as a catalyst to refocus our process improvements.

Tank does not give you entire solutions on automating specific things, but rather helps you to dip a toe into a bulk amount of examples to help with automation of company processes.

Bonus - Tank gives a nice Appendix at the end of the book to go over many automation software suggestions and use cases.

[Jennifer Chappell · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was definitely geared more toward a corporate setting. I came into it hoping for more everyday life applications, so a lot of it didn't feel very applicable but I would still recommend it for someone looking for tools to increase efficiency in a workplace setting. I did learn about 3 or so more broad practices I could incorporate to help manage my tasks and workflow.

the book has a whole appendix of different softwares and apps to automate various tasks. these solutions would primarily be applicable for someone who feels very comfortable relying on technology and the cloud. overall, it was good it just wasn't what I initially anticipated and not the personal solution I was looking for.

[Bernie Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine.
There may be a lot of helpful material here for someone who has not read other books in the productivity/self-help world.

Basically - break down any repetitive process into step lists or checklists - and, where possible, find a digital tool that will make it easier/automate the process.

The big problem is that many of the tools in the book are already feeling dated, and the book just came out earlier this year (2023). Too many specific examples of automation and not enough about how to simplify processes. I personally didn't find this all that useful.

[j · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wish it included a "target audience" before the introduction - as it's painfully basic to anyone who has even passing familiarity with any kind of process modeling. Being familiar with both process and most of the technologies mentioned, this book provided little value for me. I kept reading to see if this was just introduction and it was going to go into something more insightful than the basics, but it never happened.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not really the target market for this book. A lot of it is explaining how to understand and map out process flows, which is something I have been doing for decades. The last chapter of the book is the one I found the most interesting, as it provided tips on specific tools to automate specific tasks. Unfortunately, that is the part of the book that will go out of date pretty quickly, but at least for 2023 it is good information if you are interested in automating business processes.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine... it inspired me to find ways to automate things more. But chunks of this book already feel dated, like mentioning GPT-3, when it's on -4 (as of my reading). And the print or digital version of this is probably better than the audiobook, because sometimes it felt like it was just reading words at me. Because it was... But it can spark ideas and that's good enough.

[Steven Sokulski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I abandoned this book midway through. Mostly, u felt that I did not have enough busywork that would amount to the kind of low-hanging automation that the book extolled.

In a big fan of automation, but one’s workload has to be well suited to it.

I may come back to it as my workload evolves. But for now, it wasn’t for me.

[Diana Tyndall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good resource if you’re in the digital space looking to streamline things more efficiently. I liked the resources at the end the best which listed the software and tools to help automate that task. I did feel disconnected with some of the tasks like invoicing for example, it gave a tool to auto save attachments from emails but lacked in actually getting my head around automating that task.

[Jack B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally didn't get a lot out of this as I already work in automation. I can see how it may come in useful to a lot of people who don't interact with code and is a good way to get people into the mindset.

I think some of the drawbacks are that it's definitely going to be outdated soon as technology and software moves so fast there'll be new tools to use. I think also it doesn't discuss in enough depth where automation isn't applicable.

[Srinivasan Nanduri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read. You might not need all that is discussed in the book depending on what your day job is but is going to definitely bootstrap the mindset needed for automatic rot work and making you more productive day on day

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

prob should buy this and use it as a reference text ... at least the appendix. all about creating one's own management systems and using the tools available. i appreciate the key words as i'm guessing the tools and capabilities described will be outdated quickly.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not actually helpful. Most people say 'ok, but what tools can actually be used to automate things?' so unless you know what technologies are available and how expansive their options are, you're still at square one.

[Charles Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

86%

This book got me excited about automation again, it has been a long ass time since I've been looking at Automation and for anything convenient enough for my uses and I'm going to look at it again.

[Trice · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book could be informative for individuals whose work is in various fields, but I did not find it very STEM friendly. Many of the applications that were suggested cannot be used in health settings due to PHI or proprietary data.

[Devin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book contains suggestions on how to determine what to automate followed by lists of potential automation targets and tools to use. It could be useful if you are looking into automation for the very first time.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some solid ideas in the book. One of the biggest issues of making this usable for me is that I work for a company that has out Alcatraz level IT lockdown. So, a lot of the programs and apps that are suggested are not available on my work devices.

[Andrew Linderer · Rating 3 out of 5]

solid

Solid ideas but I’ve already implemented most of what this book talks about. I guess I was hoping for more. This would be a great read and life changing for someone that doesn’t already work in tech and manage technical resources.

[ANDRES · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool. Could have been shorter. But it does provide very good guidance and tools.

[Pramuka Godakanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely recommend if you want to maximize productivity - do less while achieving more

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book - only ding is my choice of audiobook vs physical copy for reference.

[John Wegener · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good informative read on what you can do to automate your mundane tasks. Good suggestions. Worth reading to see where you can streamline what you do.

[Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speed read. Tank knows what he's doing as CEO. No code automation is one key to the success of a disorganized, chaotic startup.

[Elizabeth Foley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got some good tidbits but it really didn’t translate well to an audio book. It also is definitely not a one size fits all and more so talks about work flow rather than simplifying and eliminating