⚙️ #SHARE - Your Best Automation

Douglas Boyce
Douglas Boyce Member, MT Tester Posts: 14 Star Contributor

I'm always looking for ideas to improve my productivity.

What is your Favorite, most Productive Automation ?

I'll go first - I have a Reoccurring Task with my Morning Routine in a Checlist that I have set to run each morning Mon - Fri.

This way, if I get busy, I can always return to make sure everything I need to do each morning gets done.

Comments

  • Andres D'Andrea
    Andres D'Andrea Member, International Partner, MT Tester Posts: 353 Community Leader

    Hello @Douglas Boyce, "Recurring Tasks" is a feature I have yet to exploit in MeisterTask, thanks for sharing your ideas.

    The automations I use the most are:

    • Time tracking (start and stop depending on the columns)
    • Task assignment (specific people depending on the columns)
    • Task status (completed when dropped in a specific column, usually "Done")

    My workflow goes like this:

    • Column for "Pending" capture all incoming tasks with no people nor due date assigned yet
    • Column(s) for "Assigned Tasks" stop the time tracking and ensure certain people are assigned as responsible. Due date is a must in this column!
    • Column for "Ongoing" tasks start the time tracking and are reserved only for tasks being executed right now
    • Column for "Done" stops the time tracking and sets the status as "Completed"

    This way, the only thing team members have to do is:

    • Drag and drop tasks between columns
    • Leave feedback (comments) on each task

    The happens in according to:

    • What's currently being done
    • Who's doing it
    • What comes next

    Sometimes, automatic checklists come handy as well in "Column Automations".

    This helps to minimize most of the cognitive load associated with "learning to use a new platform" because it doesn't get easier than drag-and-drop, right?

    Usually, the flow goes forward:

    Pending —> Assigned —> Ongoing —> Done

    And sometimes tasks that are "Ongoing" or have been "Completed" have to return to "Assignment" for some reason.

    One way or the other, automations take care of the most click-demanding settings each time.

    Additionally, I've set the Slack integration to get automatic notifications of Completed Tasks in all projects, each time a task lands in its respective "Done" column. Great for review and feedback.

    Best regards.
    Andrés D'Andrea

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  • Miša Hennin
    Miša Hennin Admin, MeisterLobster Posts: 474 Community Admin

    Love this question @Douglas Boyce!

    Honestly I don't really take advantage of automations so I'm grateful for the inspiration here.

    At the moment, I only use the recurring task automation for pieces like Badge of the Month. I know I will post a BotM at the start of every month so I have an automation creating this task as a reminder.

    I think @Cathy Fanning might have a good insight here? Also @Rooster McNugget and @Joerg Koper!

    Best,

    Miša