Get it completed: 6 activity automation concepts

I really like a very good to-do checklist. (Whether or not I really comply with that checklist and test issues off in a well timed method is my very own enterprise.) And many of the pleasure of managing duties, at the very least to my nerdy soul, is in utilizing automation to verify the whole lot from work initiatives to my household chore checklist exhibits up in a single place and retains my mind clutter-free.

For those who’re like me, your duties present up in every single place: in emails, Slack messages, assembly notes, and people “fast requests” that pop up mid-day. Earlier than lengthy, your fantastically organized checklist begins slipping out of sync with actuality. That is why automation is such an essential piece of the puzzle.

With Zapier, you possibly can join your favourite activity administration app to all the opposite instruments you employ, so new to-dos routinely seem the place they belong. Here is how you can use Zaps—our phrase for automated workflows—to create a activity system that retains up with you.

Desk of contents

What’s activity automation?

Activity automation is the behind-the-scenes magic that strikes to-dos from electronic mail inboxes, calendars, venture trackers, or type submissions straight into your activity administration app, so you do not have to recollect (or manually log) each little factor. It additionally helps coordinate your activity administration throughout instruments, so everybody in your workforce is aware of what must be completed, who’s assigned to what, and estimated timelines for every activity.

As a substitute of leaping between 5 completely different instruments attempting to determine what wants your consideration, automation retains the whole lot synced and arranged. Bought a brand new lead in your CRM? Growth, a follow-up activity seems in your to-do checklist. Somebody tags you in a Slack message with an motion merchandise? Voila—it is logged with a due date. Want to verify duties assigned in a single app present up in one other so your private system stays in sync? Automation can deal with that, too.

In brief, activity automation takes all these small however repetitive coordination moments—copying, pasting, assigning, updating—and does them for you. That manner, your workforce can really deal with the work, not the logistics of maintaining monitor of all of it.

Advantages and challenges of activity automation

While you’re engaged on a workforce, activity administration can rapidly flip into activity wrangling. One-off requests get missed, updates get misplaced within the shuffle, and everybody’s working off of their very own model of what is “subsequent.” Activity automation helps reduce by means of that chaos by ensuring the best duties land in the best locations—with out somebody manually chasing them down.

While you automate your duties, you will see advantages like:

• Fewer dropped balls. When duties are routinely created from triggers—like type submissions, bug reviews, or help tickets—you cut back the danger of somebody saying “Wait, was I supposed to do this?” No extra missed handoffs or forgotten follow-ups.

• Actual-time updates throughout instruments. Not each workforce lives in the identical activity app. In case your engineering workforce makes use of Jira, however your help workforce lives in Asana, you possibly can automate the stream of duties between them. Everybody stays aligned with out switching instruments (or pestering one another for updates).

• Clearer accountability. Automated workflows can assign duties, set due dates, and even embody related context—so nobody’s left questioning who’s on level or what the duty is about. That type of readability retains initiatives shifting.

• Time again for precise work. Handbook activity creation, sorting, and syncing eats up extra time than most individuals notice. Automating these steps provides your workforce extra respiratory room to deal with the work that really wants their consideration.

In fact, automating your activity administration does include its challenges. For instance:

• One-size-fits-all hardly ever works. Groups have completely different workflows, preferences, and definitions of what a “activity” even is. Designing automations that make sense for everybody takes some upfront alignment—and sometimes a number of iterations.

• An excessive amount of automation can result in muddle. For those who’re not cautious, you will find yourself with automations that create noise as a substitute of readability (like each electronic mail turning right into a activity). The objective is to floor essential motion objects, not create a second inbox.

• Syncing can get messy. Protecting a number of activity programs in sync is highly effective—nevertheless it’s additionally the place issues can go sideways. Duplicates, round updates, or damaged triggers can confuse the workforce greater than they assist if they don’t seem to be arrange thoughtfully. (Here is how you can keep away from creating an unintended loop between instruments along with your Zapier workflows.)

• Automation wants upkeep. Issues change: new instruments, new workflows, new individuals. Your automations will want periodic evaluations to verify they’re nonetheless working as meant (and never quietly creating chaos within the background). Here is how you can strategy workflow administration in an organized, scalable manner.

AI in activity automation

Weaving AI into your automated workflows helps you to do extra than simply transfer duties round or hold activity information up to date throughout apps. AI can really assist you to make selections, write content material, and adapt to context, all with out you lifting a finger.

For instance, as an instance a brand new help ticket is available in. Conventional automation would possibly log it as a activity for the best workforce. However add AI, and that very same workflow may summarize the difficulty, recommend a precedence degree, and tag it with the best class—all earlier than anybody even sees it. Or think about utilizing AI to wash up messy inside notes earlier than they’re pushed into your venture tracker, or to auto-draft follow-up emails when a activity is marked full. It is the following degree of delegation.

AI additionally makes your workflows extra dynamic. As a substitute of inflexible if-this-then-that logic, you possibly can construct automations that alter based mostly on pure language, tone, or patterns within the information. Suppose: rerouting duties based mostly on sentiment, escalating points that “really feel pressing,” or updating a activity’s scope based mostly on what a consumer really stated—not simply which type discipline they crammed out.

However AI is not the best instrument for each workflow.

Generally you simply want issues to be predictable and exact—like whenever you’re assigning compliance duties, dealing with delicate buyer information, or managing time-critical operations. In these instances, it is normally higher to maintain your automation logic easy and deterministic. You do not need a well-meaning AI summarizing one thing the fallacious manner or making assumptions the place readability is essential.

In brief, AI can elevate your activity automations by including intelligence, flexibility, and context. Simply ensure you’re utilizing it the place it provides worth—not the place it introduces uncertainty.

6 activity administration use instances

Now that we have explored the what, why, and the way of activity automation, let’s get into the great things: real-life methods groups are literally utilizing it. These workflows are sensible, repeatable, and designed to save lots of your workforce time (and sanity). They present how automation can do the heavy lifting for you, whether or not you are juggling a number of instruments, coordinating throughout groups, or simply attempting to maintain your activity checklist beneath management.

Add messages to your activity administration app

For instance your boss messages you, both in a Slack message or an electronic mail. Possibly she wants these month-to-month progress reviews from you by the top of the week. You’ve got received three choices:

• Cease what you are doing, collect the reviews now, and ship them her manner

• Transfer on, let the message sit there gathering mud, and probably overlook to do it

• Open up your to-do app, sort out the small print of the duty, and hold it in your radar

No. 3 is extra logical. However it will probably nonetheless take you away out of your extra urgent—or extra essential—work.

As a substitute, you should use a Zap so as to add emails or saved Slack messages to your to-do checklist app routinely based mostly on particular standards. That manner, you possibly can keep targeted in your work whereas your (or your workforce’s) to-do checklist is all the time updated.

Professional tip: As a substitute of simply dumping a message into your to-do checklist, add an AI step that summarizes the request, pulls out the important thing motion merchandise, and codecs it clearly—one thing like “Ship month-to-month progress report back to Dana by Friday EOD.” 

Create to-do checklist objects out of your note-taking app

We take notes on a regular basis, from assembly minutes to concepts. However maintaining these organized or making them actionable requires copying and pasting, which could be inefficient. With certainly one of our computerized workflows, you possibly can flip new notes in apps like Evernote or OneNote into duties. Assign duties to your self or different workforce members to streamline assembly or brainstorming follow-up.

Wish to arrange your notes earlier than they land in your to-do checklist app? For those who’ve typed them out in a rush otherwise you’d like so as to add clearer directions for particular workforce members, you possibly can add an AI step to do the heavy lifting for you. 

With these Zaps, any new notes you create will probably be despatched on to an AI instrument of your selection (like ChatGPT or Google AI Studio). AI will then reformat or improve the content material based mostly in your directions, including context the place wanted, earlier than seamlessly sending it to your to-do checklist app.

Professional tip: While you join Zapier MCP to ChatGPT or Claude, you possibly can carry out 30,000+ actions proper out of your chat interface. For instance, you may execute a command like this: “Set a reminder for the workforce assembly subsequent Monday at 10 AM.” To learn to arrange Zapier MCP, try our in-depth function information.

Create motion objects out of your conferences

Conferences typically include common duties, like creating an agenda, finishing follow-up objects, or making ready ongoing reviews. Be sure you and your assembly attendees by no means miss assembly prep and follow-up once more with automation.

With these Zaps, you possibly can routinely add new duties to your to checklist app for appointments in your calendar.

For those who use AI instruments like Learn AI or Fathom to take notes and plan follow-up duties for initiatives as your conferences are taking place, you can even routinely add them on to your activity administration app. 

That manner, any motion objects that want your consideration will not slip by means of the cracks.

Collaborate on duties along with your workforce

Your trusty activity administration app would possibly work completely for you, however your teammates may very well be utilizing one thing solely completely different. This could make it difficult to share updates or get a holistic view of your initiatives.

That is the place integrating with sturdy venture administration platforms or shared databases like Notion or Google Sheets could make all of the distinction. With Zapier, you possibly can routinely add new duties to particular initiatives or dashboards, flag incomplete duties for collaboration, and even replace venture objects everytime you full a activity in your activity administration app.

Cross-posting these updates throughout platforms ensures everybody stays aligned, reduces miscommunication, and retains your initiatives shifting ahead seamlessly.

Professional tip: Not each activity must be broadcast to each instrument. Add filters so solely high-priority duties, overdue objects, or these tagged with one thing like #collab get despatched to your shared dashboards. Retains issues targeted and related.

Schedule recurring duties

All of us have these duties that we have to get completed on a day by day, weekly, or month-to-month foundation. In-app notifications and reminders are helpful, however some do not allow you to set recurring duties. Our built-in scheduling instrument may also help you add that function to your favourite activity administration app.

You may as well use a Zapier agent to get sensible digests of your duties on a recurring foundation. This template, for instance, sends you a day by day abstract of your Airtable database in your electronic mail—however you possibly can customise it to observe no matter activity administration app you favor.

Create to-do objects from type submissions

There could also be occasions whenever you or another person in your workforce must take motion on type submissions. For instance, you might be the purpose individual for following up on buyer suggestions or new leads. Or you might must ship sure type responses to your help workforce for follow-up.

With certainly one of our Zaps, you possibly can add particular data from new type submissions into your activity supervisor, so that you all the time bear in mind to comply with up.

This text was initially revealed in August 2015, with prior contributions from Alison Groves and Elena Alston. It was most lately up to date in November 2025 by Nicole Replogle.