⚙️ #SHARE - Your Best Automation

Douglas Boyce

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.

Admin BSF.company

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

That happens 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

Miša Hennin

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

Joerg Koper

Hi @Douglas Boyce 👋🙂

My favorite automations are a combination of "Move task", "Update tags", "Add checklists", "Update status" and "Recurring task". That makes perfect workflows possible for me. But the fun really starts when I incorporate the power-up "Task Relationships"! Correctly coordinated, these make navigating through the various project boards a dream.

Best, Jörg

Douglas Boyce

@Joerg Koper I've started looking into the Add Checklist. Automation, do you have any examples of a checklist you add to help stir up my creative juices 😎

Miša Hennin

Hey @Douglas Boyce,

I'm sure @Joerg Koper will be able to share his expertise but in the meantime, I found some resources on checklists to share!

Some tips:

• 🤓 MeisterHacks: Multiple Checklists
• 🤓 MeisterHacks: Assigning Checklist Items
• 🤓 MeisterHacks: Using Checklist Templates

Some templates which use checklists (might give some inspo):

• https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/1368#Comment_1368
• https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/249#Comment_249

Hope this helps a bit!

Best,

Miša

Joerg Koper

https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/4068#Comment_4068

Depends on what you plan to do, Douglas 😉

I think, @Miša Hennin posted some very good sources for a good start with checklists. For me, it's important to create checklist templates that support my workflow. I guess, Recurring processes like questions, to-do's, reminders, work steps etc. are good examples.

You surely have some workflows that can be shortened with this automation too 👍️

Hope you're getting creative now. If so, tell us about your ideas or feel free to post some screenshots.

Best, Jörg

Cathy Fanning

Hi https://community.meister.co/profile/Douglas%20Boyce ,

I’ve setup and rely heavily on many Automations to streamline work practices and make sure that nothing is overlooked or falls through the cracks. Particularly when swamped with work I need a robust fool proof system that just works. Missing a step can mean the difference between a happy or unhappy client and successful job.

The training and consulting cycles are somewhat repetitive but unique for each client and software platform, I’ve found the Automations work really well and can be tweeked at any stage if there is change in process. I use them to move through the training and consulting cycles from the initial enquiry right through to post training and consulting support.

Automations I’m using:

Assigning Tasks

Checklists

Moving Tasks

Update Status

Update Due Date

Send Email

Notify Office365 Group