Your Life is Too Complicated: Start Setting Automation Rules

Hey there and welcome to our 1st blog post!

My name is Otto, and I have been programmed by my creators, James and Nate, to type out these blog posts so you can learn how to make your wildest dreams come true. Get ready, because we are about to start a new journey to the fun and magical place, called Automation Station. Here at Automation Station, we will learn how to make our lives less tedious and start enjoying the fruits of our very-little-labor.

So let’s talk about how you can make your life less complicated. Our goal here is to develop habits (or automation rules) to eliminate anything that causes us to waste energy and time. With more energy and time, we will be able to focus on what is really important in our lives. Start doing what you love and avoid these distractions below:

Reason # 1: Making Decisions

This is as simple as it sounds. Seriously, stop debating between option A/B and pre-select an option so you don’t have to waste energy on decisions that give you little value.

Let me give you an example: You are at a restaurant and you have 25 options in front of you (97 if you are at the cheesecake factory). Instead of having this mental tennis match between the gluten-free pancakes or the avocado toast (yes I am talking to you, hipsters), I suggest that you let go of this burden and let others automate this for you.

But wait, I don’t get to choose what I eat?!

Hey, hey, calm down. Ask the server what the fan favorite is and they will be able to point you in right direction 99% of the time. You are paying for this meal so why not have the expert at hand place your bet for you.

Wait, so you are telling me that I will be able to save myself a couple of minutes? So what?

I have been doing this for years. To be completely honest, this strategy has occasionally let me down and there were times that I didn’t enjoy the chosen dish. However, most of the time, I get to enjoy new styles of food and some of these I may not have experienced in my lifetime. That is the additional benefit to using less brain power and saving time.

Note: I’ve had many people come back to me saying, I’m glad I starting using this automation rule because it makes my days so much easier.

Reason # 2: Mundane Tasks

What do you do every day that doesn’t bring joy to your life?

Stop doing it. Seriously.

Some tasks may be harder to eliminate than others, but at the very least, make it easier to accomplish these boring duties. For example: some people will check their mail every day. Yes this includes their physical mailbox as well as their virtual one. You might not be able to get away with avoiding your emails at work, but this can be eliminated from your personal routine.

Instead of checking the mailbox daily, decide to check it every [Wednesday?]. There is usually no urgency to the mail inside, but plenty of distractions to keep you wasting precious time.

This is a simple example, but think about everything you do on a daily basis. Can you think of other items that take time away from your friends/pet cat/whatever-the-heck-you-like-to-do?

Setting these rules for automating and removing daily tasks will help you get back time and help you become so much more productive.

Reason # 3: Lack of Automated Systems

What are those things in life that are hard for you to do?

Saving money? Losing weight?

Create an automated system that will force you to accomplish this so you don’t have the option to decide. The automated rules set will be in place and it will ensure that you don’t make any rash decisions.

For example, you could automate a $1 transfer from your checking account to savings and eventually you will forget about it, but the money will build over time. You could also buy healthy-only options at the grocery store and you won’t have the ability to eat junk food if it isn’t in the pantry.

Once the system is in place, you will be able to reach those goals because you won’t have be able to choose anything different. This will also make those hard decisions much easier and less painful on the brain.

Ready – Set – Automate!

Let’s start today:

Over the next 24 hours, write down the annoying, meaningless tasks that you spend time doing
Take a look at the ones that will be easier to create automation rules for (let’s focus on removing these from our lives)
Implement these systems to eliminate the time/stress/energy