Automate Everything. Stop Living Like it’s the 1970's.

The front door shut quietly behind him as his leather shoes swept across the manicured lawn as he made his way to the Chevrolet Monte Carlo. It was 6:30 AM and he was off to work. Inside the house, slept his wife and three young children, whom he wouldn’t see again until he left his desk job at 5:00 PM that evening. As he works at the office, she works at home — day after day, year after year. She spends the entire day “keeping up the house”, and running errands — with little time to do much else. This schedule was the typical lifestyle led by millions of Americans in the 1970’s.

Unfortunately, some people still subscribe to this manually oriented ideology in 2020. The simple fact is: technology has evolved so we no longer have to spend time performing laborious chores, waiting in long lines, and driving Bobby to Soccer practice. They can now easily and affordably be either outsourced or automated. Your biggest problem now will be figuring our what you want to do with all of your free time.

Let me show you how to realistically automate (or outsource) some of your daily tasks, so you can do more of the things you love doing. I will outline extremely prudent ways to save yourself time on a daily basis. This time saved compounds, over time, and effectively clears your schedule so you can have the day you want to have.

Buy A Robot, Seriously

Then: Spend 3 hours vacuuming the entire house, 2x per week.

Now: Buy a Roomba once and never vacuum again. They can run at the same time daily and even have a convenient iPhone App to control their schedule. Make sure to get a Roomba and not a cheap knock-off (there are a lot of copy cats in the marketplace now). Spend 30 minutes purchasing it and setting it up. Plus ~2 minutes every month emptying the Roomba’s tray into the trash. Your new maid works every day of the week and even when you’re sleeping

Let’s face it, vacuuming is probably the most fun chore in the house and it’s still not something most people “look forward” to. I’ve had a Roomba for the past 4 years and it’s easily been my best home purchase, as far as pure time savings are concerned. If I run my Roomba 2x a week, a quick calculation will show that it’s saved me a staggering 34 days of my life since I purchased it! (52 weeks x 2x per week at 2 hours per vacuum session = 204 hours or 8.5 days saved each year). Saving over a week per year is a huge time saver and is a step in the right direction of you getting more time to do what you want with YOUR life. Is a week of your life worth more than a couple hundred bucks? I’ll let you decide.

Get Your Groceries Delivered (City Dwellers & Whole Foods Fans)

Then: Drive to the grocery store, spend time shopping, wait in the check out line and drive home. Spend 2 hours, 2x per week.

Now: Use Amazon Prime — Whole Foods Delivery, available in most US cities. Spend 5–15 minutes (in your PJ’s, from your house).

This has been a tough one for me to automate as I do remember a time actually enjoying going to the grocery store. But once I realized how much time I was actually spending performing this task, I quickly got over it. It’s a pretty simple decision — we can easily outsource this activity. If you need the outlet of going grocery shopping, maybe go once a week or when you’re feeling like you need to get out of the house. Going to the grocery store historically was a social activity, but that changed at some point. If you feel compelled to pick your own avocados for ripeness and maybe bump into Suzy and talk about your summer plans, that’s amazing and you have my full support. But don’t go just because you think you need to.

Always Order Food Ahead, via an App or Website

Then: Drive to a restaurant, wait in the lobby for your table to be ready, sit through a meal, maybe dessert and then drive home. Spend 3+ hours each time you eat at a restaurant.

Now: Use Uber Eats, Caviar, DoorDash or Postmates to either get food delivered, or have it available for pickup. Most restaurants will allow you to order ahead on their websites or call in. Eat at home, or outside in a nearby park.

We can now see that a common denominator of these tasks involve driving places and waiting in lines. There’s not much need to do that any more, let those that have yet to adopt automation while you skip the line. This saves both gas, your sanity and your time.

This is probably my most controversial take on automation, but let’s see what you think. How much better is a meal at a restaurant than a meal at home? What about getting takeout or delivery and going to eat food at a nearby park (no tips required for this)? The entire process of eating at a restaurant is more time consuming and expensive than most people realize.

Automate ALL of your bills — No More Bank Runs

Then: Wait for your daily mail delivery. Sort through dozens of bills and boring paperwork. Hold on to every receipt you get for all of your transactions, so you can add them up later. Get your checkbook out and sit and take the time to mail checks out.

Now: Setup Auto-Pay on ALL of your recurring bills.

My Mom still likes to balance a checkbook and she saves every receipt from all of her in person purchases. I try to tell her it’s all tracked online with her credit card company and there’s ZERO need to keep receipts anymore. She’s sort of stuck in her ways, so I don’t push anymore. Every major credit card company allows you to auto pay your bills, and pull the cash straight out of your debit account. Some people, still, unfortunately spend time on a weekly basis managing this process — when it can be automated. Save yourself the hassle of holding onto paper receipts and go setup auto pay on all of your credit cards (if you have any).

There’s also no need to go to a bank in person, even if you’re applying for a mortgage, loan or need physical cash (ATM’s for this). All of this can be done online. So skip the bank, skip the lines there and the drive time. If Bobby looks forward to the multi-colored bucket of lollipops left on the counter, make sure to have a little candy at home for them, after supper, of course.

Direct Deposit 5–10% of your paycheck into an online Brokerage Account

(This one is more-so about financial automation, but it’s just good practice)

Then: Go to the bank or HR Department at work, file paper work, change routing numbers, wait a few weeks, find a broker, buy a stock on the phone, etc.

Now: Before you even see it, have a small portion of your paycheck get put into the Stock Market.

I’m not a financial adviser and this is not financial advice. But so few people are invested in the stock market and it’s now unbelievably simple to do so, that it’s worth mentioning here. Setting up a Brokerage account at any Online Brokerage Company (Fidelity is my preferred broker), and automatically direct depositing some of your paycheck into the account is something that every adult should be doing. Even if it’s only 1–5% of your income, this money will add up over time. Once the money is deposited, perform some research on the best, low cost ETF’s to invest in (Vanguard is an extremely reputable and low cost ETF Company). So spend a couple minutes and set it up, your future self will be extremely proud of current you!

Get A Personal Assistant (An Echo or Echo Dot)

Then: Carry around a physical notebook & pen, write down all appointments, reminders and contacts.

Now: Have immediate access to a world of information, timers, alarms, reminders, etc. without touching any buttons.

I use my Amazon Alexa frequently throughout the day. Whether it be as a sound machine at night (I listen to “Babbling Brook” or “Ocean Sounds” as nice, free ambient noise to fall asleep to), a timer while cooking, solving a math problem, or even recalling a statistic on the population size of California. Alexa is an instant personal assistant that is unbelievably useful in maintaining your lifestyle and keeping a schedule — all from the sound of your own voice. If you’ve been on the fence about this purchase, understand that it’s just a massive time saver and assists in automating your life. Let’s just hope that she’s not listening to us!

Are you a Coffee Drinker? (Starbucks Mobile App)

(This one is a smaller time saver, but worth mentioning)

Then: Walk or drive to a coffee shop, wait in the line for your table to be ready, sit through a meal, maybe dessert and then drive home.

Now: Use the Starbucks Mobile App. Skip the line, get caffeinated.

This one is pretty simple and a no-brainer if you’re a coffee drinker. It took me way too long to get on the bandwagon of Starbucks and even their mobile app. This one essentially just allows you to skip the line and have your coffee ready for you when you arrive. But if you’re waiting in a coffee line every day and like your coffee sizes in Italian, this one is a definite time saver.

Listen to Audio Books, Audible or Other App

Then: Walk or drive to a coffee shop, wait in the line for your table to be ready, sit through a meal, maybe dessert and then drive home.

Now: Use the Starbucks Mobile App.

I used to be an avid reader, and I’m not sure when but since I made the jump over to Amazon’s Audible App, my reading throughput has been extremely high for me. I listen to a book or 2 per month at the very least. What I have found out is that by listening to a book, I am 10x more likely to finish it. There’s a flow state that occurs while listening to a book that I was never able to find while reading a physical book.

There’s probably a small group of readers who find moving to an app removes the beauty and true essence of the activity “reading”. While there is some truth to this, my response to that when I bring it up in my own mind is, “I actually finish the books I start on Audible — any how many physical books do I have on my nightstand that I don’t get through?” Audio books are pragmatic and will allow you to save time and acquire more knowledge.

Pro tip: you can speed up the author’s speed on Audible (I set it to 1.5x speed if the author has a slow cadence).

Do You Run any Social Media Account?

(This one really only applies to small business owners or social media accounts — if not you, please skip)

Then: This doesn’t apply as Facebook wasn’t around in the ‘70’s, but still — you get the point.

Now: Spend an hour or 2 each month automating all of your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts.

There were previously popular automation sites like HootSuite for automating your social media posts in one place. Quite recently, Facebook just built their own automation and scheduled posting service for small business Facebook Accounts (Check it out here). Some small business owners were spending hours on a daily basis putting up new posts — this no longer needs to happen! Set a little bit of time on your schedule at the beginning of the month and just schedule it all out. This has turned out to be a massive time saver for me.

By this time, hopefully I’ve been able to teach you something about saving time and automating some of the small things in your day.

We still hold on to old habits, even though technology and society are now in a place where a lot of what we do, doesn’t need to be so manual. This is the paradigm shift that will continue moving towards automation. Most people live on auto-pilot which makes it difficult to adopt new habits and change up your lifestyle. It’s crucial to be frequently asking yourself “does this make sense?” and “why am I living like this?” when it comes to those activities we’re doing daily.

Get your time back and spend it doing what really matter!