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Re:Ask HN: Do you automate most of your routine tasks? by mopoke on Thursday March 31, 2011 @05:19AM (#2390870)
Depends on the definition of "some time" compared to the 2 weeks (solid?) it would take the automate. And how long you expect to continue doing said tasks.

That said, I would always err on the side of automating - at least some of the tasks. Take the low hanging fruit and tackle those first.

For example, I send out a weekly report containing a bunch of metrics sourced from our website monitoring tool. It took me a couple of days to automate that, but it saves me a good hour every week (and means I don't make mistakes copying and pasting figures which I used to with alarming regularity). It also means that my Monday mornings can start immediately without pounding through a repetitive task.

Re:Ask HN: Do you automate most of your routine tasks? by itcmcgrath on Thursday March 31, 2011 @06:48AM (#2391034)
Exactly. Unless you have what "some time" is, how can you possibly justify something. It all boils down to ROI and risk (including mental sanity).