Introduction: Your Automation Journey Starts Here

Hey there, brilliant people! 👋

You're juggling multiple projects, managing stakeholders, and probably feeling like there aren't enough hours in the day. You're not alone, and you don't have to stay stuck in manual work that's draining your energy.

This guide gives you 10 powerful automations that will save you 10+ hours per week and reduce the mental load that comes with being a high-performing delivery professional.

Why These 10 Automations?

I chose these based on feedback from 100+ women in delivery roles. These are the automations that provide the biggest impact with the least setup time.

You'll save time on:

• Status updates and reporting

• Meeting coordination and follow-up

• Task tracking and notifications

• Communication management

You'll gain:

• 10+ hours per week

• Reduced mental load

• Proactive project management

• More time for strategic work

Let's get started! 🚀

How to Use This Guide

Your Success Framework

Start with 3: Pick the 3 automations that address your biggest pain points first.

Test and adjust: Every automation includes basic setup plus "level up" tips.

Track your wins: Use the checklist to celebrate each automation you complete.

• What You'll Need Make.com account (free tier works)

• Notion workspace

• Access to your primary work tools

• 30 minutes per automation
  

Quick Setup Guide

Essential Prep (5 minutes)

1. Sign up for Make.com (free account)

2. Create "Automations" page in Notion

3. Gather your tool login info (Gmail, Slack, Jira, etc.)

Your First Win (5 minutes)

Test automation: Set up a simple Gmail → Slack notification to build confidence before diving into the main automations.

The 10 Essential Automations

1. Weekly Status Report Generator

🎯 The Problem: Spending 2+ hours every Friday creating status updates for different stakeholders.

⚙️ The Solution: Automatically pull project data and generate customized reports.

Setup Steps:

1. Create status template in Notion with project health, milestones, blockers

2. Make.com scenario: Every Friday at 4 PM

3. Pull data from Jira (completion rates) and Slack (mentions)

4. Generate formatted email for stakeholders

📋 Template:

markdown
# Weekly Status - {{Date}}

## 🎯 Key Wins
{{Auto-populated from completed Jira tickets}}

## 📊 Project Health
{{Project}} - {{Status}} - {{% Complete}}

## 🚨 Blockers
{{Flagged issues requiring attention}}

## 📅 Next Week
{{Upcoming milestones}}

💡 Level Up: Add predictive alerts for projects at risk of missing deadlines.

⏰ Time Saved: 2 hours weekly + proactive risk management

2. Smart Meeting Follow-Up

🎯 The Problem: Action items from meetings get lost, and you're constantly following up manually.

⚙️ The Solution: Auto-extract action items and create trackable tasks.

Setup Steps:

1. Create action item database in Notion

2. Use email template with specific format for meeting summaries

3. Make.com parses emails for action items (@person format)

4. Creates Notion tasks and sends Slack notifications to owners

📋 Email Format:

markdown 

Subject: Action Items - [Meeting] - [Date]

Action Items: • Task description - @owner - Due: date • Task description - @owner - Due: date

Decisions:

- Decision 1
- Decision 2
- Decision 3 

💡 Level Up: Weekly digest of overdue items with gentle reminders.

⏰ Time Saved: 15 minutes per meeting + nothing falls through cracks

3. Calendar Protection System

🎯 The Problem: People book over your focus time, destroying your productivity.

⚙️ The Solution: Automatically protect focus blocks and suggest alternatives.

Setup Steps:

1. Create recurring "Focus Time" blocks in Google Calendar

2. Set Calendly to block these times

3. Make.com sends polite decline with alternatives when conflicts occur

4. Track patterns to identify boundary issues

📋 Auto-Response:

markdown

Hi [Name],

I have focus time blocked then to ensure quality work. 

Alternative times:
• [Option 1]
• [Option 2]
• [Option 3]

For urgent matters: [Emergency link]

💡 Level Up: Analytics on who requests focus time to address patterns.

⏰ Time Saved: 3+ hours of protected deep work weekly

4. Project Risk Early Warning System

🎯 The Problem: Issues become crises because you don't catch warning signs early.

⚙️ The Solution: Monitor multiple signals and alert you before problems escalate.

Setup Steps:

1. Define risk indicators (velocity drops, overdue tasks, negative sentiment)

2. Make.com monitors Jira, Slack, and calendar data

3. Calculates risk scores using weighted factors

4. Sends alerts when thresholds are crossed

📋 Risk Factors:

• Velocity below 80% of average

• 3+ overdue high-priority tasks

• Negative sentiment in Slack mentions

• Key stakeholder missing 2+ meetings

💡 Level Up: Machine learning to improve risk prediction accuracy.

⏰ Time Saved: Prevents 5+ hours of crisis management per incident

5. Stakeholder Communication Autopilot

🎯 The Problem: Different people need different information, and customizing updates is time-consuming.

⚙️ The Solution: Automatically customize communication based on stakeholder preferences.

Setup Steps:

1. Create stakeholder database with communication preferences

2. Tag contacts by role (Executive, Team, Client)

3. Make.com generates appropriate detail level for each group

4. Sends via preferred channel (email, Slack, dashboard)

📋 Customization Rules:

• Executives: High-level metrics, risks, decisions needed

• Team: Tactical details, blockers, next steps

• Clients: Progress highlights, milestone updates

💡 Level Up: A/B test subject lines and timing for better engagement.

⏰ Time Saved: 1 hour per update cycle + better stakeholder satisfaction

6. Automated Task Prioritization

🎯 The Problem: Your task list is overwhelming, and you're not sure what to focus on first.

⚙️ The Solution: Automatically score and rank tasks based on multiple factors.

Setup Steps:

1. Create task database in Notion with priority factors

2. Set up scoring formula (urgency + impact + effort + stakeholder weight)

3. Make.com updates scores when task details change

4. Generates daily priority list

📋 Scoring Factors:

• Urgency: Days until deadline

• Impact: Business value (1-5 scale)

• Effort: Time required (1-5 scale)

• Stakeholder: Executive request = higher weight

💡 Level Up: Learn from your completion patterns to improve scoring.

⏰ Time Saved: 30 minutes daily on prioritization + better focus

7. Slack Noise Filter

🎯 The Problem: Important messages get buried in Slack noise, causing you to miss critical information.

⚙️ The Solution: Intelligent filtering and routing of Slack messages.

Setup Steps:

1. Define VIP keywords and people in Notion

2. Make.com monitors Slack for priority patterns

3. Routes important messages to dedicated channel or email

4. Summarizes non-urgent mentions in daily digest

📋 Priority Triggers:

• Messages from executives

• Keywords: "urgent," "blocked," "help," "deadline"

• @channel mentions in project channels

• Messages in crisis/incident channels

💡 Level Up: Sentiment analysis to catch frustrated team members early.

⏰ Time Saved: 45 minutes daily + never miss critical info

8. Meeting ROI Tracker

🎯 The Problem: You're in too many meetings but don't know which ones are actually valuable.

⚙️ The Solution: Track meeting effectiveness and make data-driven calendar decisions.

Setup Steps:

1. Create meeting ROI database in Notion

2. Post-meeting survey automation via Slack

3. Track: value rating, action items generated, could-be-email score

4. Weekly analysis of time allocation

📋 Quick Survey:

markdown
Meeting: {{Title}}
Rate 1-5:
• How valuable was this?
• Could this have been an email?
• Were you essential?
• Clear action items defined?

💡 Level Up: Share anonymized data to improve team meeting culture.

⏰ Time Saved: Reclaim 3-5 hours weekly by eliminating low-value meetings

9. Deadline Cascade Manager

🎯 The Problem: When one deadline slips, you manually have to figure out what else is affected.

⚙️ The Solution: Automatically map dependencies and update cascading deadlines.

Setup Steps:

1. Map project dependencies in Notion

2. When a task deadline changes, Make.com calculates impact

3. Updates dependent task deadlines automatically

4. Notifies affected team members and stakeholders

📋 Dependency Types:

• Blocking: Task A must finish before Task B starts

• Related: Tasks that should align timing

• Resource: Same person working on multiple tasks

💡 Level Up: Scenario planning for "what if" deadline changes.

⏰ Time Saved: 1+ hour per deadline change + prevents cascade failures

10. Personal Energy Management

🎯 The Problem: You're burning out because you're not protecting your energy or tracking what drains you.

⚙️ The Solution: Monitor energy patterns and automatically suggest optimizations.

Setup Steps:

1. Create energy tracking database in Notion

2. Daily check-in automation via Slack (energy level 1-5)

3. Correlate with calendar data (meeting types, duration, timing)

4. Weekly insights on energy patterns and suggestions

📋 Energy Factors:

• Meeting density: Back-to-back vs. spaced

• Meeting types: 1:1s vs. large groups vs. presentations

• Time of day: Morning vs. afternoon energy

• Context switching: Number of different projects/topics

💡 Level Up: Predictive scheduling to optimize energy allocation.

⏰ Time Saved: Prevents burnout + 20% productivity increase through better energy management

Your Implementation Checklist

Week 1: Foundation

• Set up Make.com account

• Create Notion automation workspace

• Implement Automation #1 (Status Reports)

• Implement Automation #2 (Meeting Follow-up)

Week 2: Protection

• Implement Automation #3 (Calendar Protection)

• Implement Automation #4 (Risk Early Warning)

• Test and refine first 4 automations

Week 3: Communication

• Implement Automation #5 (Stakeholder Autopilot)

• Implement Automation #6 (Task Prioritization)

• Implement Automation #7 (Slack Filter)

Week 4: Optimization

• Implement Automation #8 (Meeting ROI)

• Implement Automation #9 (Deadline Cascade)

• Implement Automation #10 (Energy Management)

Week 5: Refinement

• Review all automations Optimize based on usage patterns

• Calculate total time saved

• Plan advanced enhancements

Next Steps & Resources

Congratulations! 🎉 

You now have 10 powerful automations that will save you 10+ hours per week and significantly reduce your mental load.

Want More?

Busy professionals will:

• Save time instantly

• Reduce decision fatigue and repetitive work

• Feel empowered and organized through simple, no-code automations

• Walk away with 3 working automations they can plug into their day right now

Auto-Magic is a comprehensive program that includes:

• 25 additional automations

• Custom Make.com scenarios

• 1:1 implementation support

• Private community of automation-savvy professionals

Free Resources:

• Weekly automation tips: [newsletter signup]

Share Your Success I'd love to hear how these automations are working for you! Tag me on LinkedIn [@/in/phedraarthur] with your biggest time-saving win.

Remember You're not just automating tasks—you're creating space for the strategic, high-impact work that showcases your true value. You deserve systems that work as hard as you do.

Keep leading, keep innovating, and keep making space for what matters most.