Expert-Recommended Tasks to Automate Right Now and Reclaim 10+ Hours Weekly

Industry leaders and productivity specialists agree that the fastest path to reclaiming your time lies in smart automation. Instead of spending hours on repetitive tasks, the most successful professionals use proven tools and systems that handle the grunt work automatically. This list compiles expert-endorsed automation strategies that have been tested and validated by thousands of business owners, freelancers, and teams. Each recommendation comes with a track record of delivering real time savings, often freeing up ten or more hours per week. If you want to work smarter based on what the pros actually use, start with these tasks.

1. Hire Freelancers Through Legiit for Recurring Tasks

   Business consultants consistently recommend outsourcing repetitive work to trusted freelancers rather than handling everything yourself. Legiit connects you with vetted professionals who can take over tasks like content creation, graphic design, social media management, and customer support on a recurring basis. By setting up a monthly retainer with a reliable freelancer, you automate the delegation process itself. You get consistent quality without the constant search for help, and your freelancer becomes familiar with your brand and standards over time. This approach has helped countless entrepreneurs recover double-digit hours each week.

2. Set Up Bill Payment Automation Through Your Bank

   Financial advisors point to automated bill payments as one of the simplest ways to save time and avoid late fees. Most banks and credit unions offer free bill pay services that automatically transfer funds on scheduled dates. You can set up recurring payments for rent, utilities, insurance, subscriptions, and loan payments. Once configured, these payments happen without your intervention, eliminating the need to log in, write checks, or manually approve transactions each month. The time saved adds up quickly, especially if you manage multiple accounts or properties.

3. Use Zapier to Connect Your Most-Used Apps

   Productivity experts frequently cite Zapier as the gold standard for connecting different software tools without coding. Zapier creates automated workflows, called Zaps, that trigger actions across apps whenever certain conditions are met. For example, you can automatically save email attachments to cloud storage, add new contacts to your CRM, or post social media updates when you publish a blog post. Thousands of integrations are available, and the platform is trusted by businesses of all sizes. Setting up a handful of Zaps can eliminate hours of manual data entry and file management each week.

4. Automate Social Media Posting with Buffer or Hootsuite

   Marketing professionals rely on scheduling tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to maintain consistent social media presence without daily manual posting. These platforms let you batch-create content in a single session and schedule posts weeks in advance across multiple accounts and networks. Both tools offer analytics to track performance and suggest optimal posting times based on your audience data. By dedicating one or two hours per month to scheduling instead of posting daily, you free up significant time while maintaining or even improving your engagement rates.

5. Enable Auto-Responders for Common Email Inquiries

   Customer service experts recommend setting up email auto-responders for frequently asked questions and common requests. Most email platforms and help desk software allow you to create templates that automatically reply when certain keywords or conditions are detected. You can provide instant answers about business hours, shipping policies, pricing information, or account setup without lifting a finger. For inquiries that need human attention, the auto-responder can set expectations about response time and direct people to additional resources. This reduces your inbox burden and improves customer satisfaction through faster replies.

6. Set Up Recurring Calendar Blocks for Deep Work

   Time management coaches emphasize the importance of automating your schedule, not just your tasks. By creating recurring calendar blocks for focused work, exercise, planning sessions, and breaks, you eliminate the daily decision fatigue of figuring out when to do what. Tools like Google Calendar and Outlook allow you to set repeating events that protect your most productive hours from meetings and interruptions. This systematic approach ensures that high-priority work happens consistently without requiring willpower or memory. Many professionals report that this single habit reclaims more time than any other automation.

7. Use IFTTT for Smart Home and Device Automation

   Technology specialists point to IFTTT (If This Then That) as the trusted solution for automating everyday routines involving smart devices and online services. You can create applets that automatically adjust your thermostat based on weather, turn off lights when you leave home, save photos to backup storage, or send you alerts for important events. The platform works with hundreds of devices and services, from smart speakers to fitness trackers to news apps. Small automations across your daily routine compound into significant time savings and mental energy preservation throughout the week.

8. Automate Expense Tracking with Receipt Scanning Apps

   Accountants and bookkeepers consistently recommend apps like Expensify and Shoeboxed for automatic expense management. These tools use your phone camera to scan receipts, extract the relevant data, categorize expenses, and sync everything to your accounting software. Many can also automatically import transactions from your bank and credit card accounts. What used to require hours of sorting paper receipts and manual data entry now happens in seconds. At tax time or during monthly reviews, all your expenses are already organized and categorized without any additional effort.

9. Set Up Automatic Savings Transfers

   Financial planners universally advocate for automating your savings before you have a chance to spend the money. Most banks allow you to schedule automatic transfers from checking to savings accounts on specific dates, typically right after your paycheck deposits. You can also use apps like Digit or Qapital that analyze your spending patterns and automatically move small amounts to savings when you can afford it. This “pay yourself first” approach removes the decision-making and discipline required for manual saving. Over time, the accumulated hours spent managing money manually add up to a substantial time investment you no longer need to make.

10. Use Email Filters and Labels to Organize Your Inbox

    IT professionals and efficiency experts stress the importance of letting your email client do the sorting work for you. By creating filters and rules based on sender, subject line, or keywords, you can automatically label, archive, or folder incoming messages without reviewing them individually. Newsletters can go straight to a reading folder, receipts to finance, and team updates to their respective project labels. Gmail, Outlook, and most other email platforms offer powerful filtering capabilities. Spending an hour setting up these rules can save you hours every week that you would otherwise spend manually organizing messages.

11. Automate Meeting Scheduling with Calendly

    Executive assistants and busy professionals swear by Calendly for eliminating the back-and-forth of scheduling meetings. You set your available times, share your Calendly link, and invitees can book directly on your calendar without any email exchanges. The tool integrates with major calendar platforms, sends automatic reminders, and can even collect pre-meeting information through custom questions. For anyone who schedules multiple meetings per week, this tool typically saves two to four hours of coordination time. The professional version offers additional features like team scheduling and payment collection for consultations.

12. Enable Automatic Software and App Updates

    Cybersecurity experts and IT managers recommend enabling automatic updates for all your software, apps, and operating systems. Manual updates require you to notice notifications, remember to install them, and often restart devices at inconvenient times. Automatic updates happen in the background, usually during off-hours, keeping your systems secure and functional without your involvement. This prevents the time lost to update sessions and reduces the risk of security vulnerabilities that come from running outdated software. Most devices and applications offer this option in their settings, and enabling it takes just minutes.

13. Use Text Expanders for Frequently Typed Phrases

    Writers, developers, and support teams rely on text expansion tools like TextExpander and PhraseExpress to automatically insert commonly used text snippets. You create shortcuts for email signatures, addresses, code snippets, customer service responses, or any text you type repeatedly. Type the shortcut, and the full text appears instantly. For professionals who type the same information dozens of times per day, text expanders can save several hours per week. The tools work across all applications on your computer, making them universally helpful regardless of your specific tasks.

14. Automate Data Backups to Cloud Storage

    Data recovery specialists and IT consultants strongly recommend automated backup systems to protect your work without manual effort. Services like Backblaze, Carbonite, and built-in options like Time Machine for Mac or File History for Windows can continuously back up your files to the cloud or external drives. Once configured, backups happen in the background without your involvement. This eliminates the need to remember to back up important files and ensures you never lose work due to hardware failure or accidents. The peace of mind alone saves the mental energy of worrying about data loss.

15. Set Up Automatic Invoice Generation and Payment Reminders

    Business consultants and accountants recommend automating your invoicing process through platforms like FreshBooks, QuickBooks, or Wave. These tools can generate and send invoices automatically based on your billing schedule, send payment reminders at preset intervals, and even process payments when they arrive. For service providers and freelancers who bill multiple clients regularly, this automation can save three to five hours per week previously spent creating invoices, tracking payments, and following up on late accounts. The systems also reduce errors and improve cash flow through timely, consistent billing.

16. Use Canned Responses for Repetitive Customer Questions

    Customer support managers and help desk professionals rely on canned responses to handle common inquiries efficiently. Gmail, Outlook, and dedicated support platforms like Zendesk allow you to save template responses that can be inserted with a few keystrokes. You can personalize these templates with customer names and specific details while keeping the core message consistent. For businesses that receive similar questions repeatedly, this approach maintains quality while dramatically reducing response time. Support teams report saving dozens of hours weekly by using well-crafted response libraries instead of writing each reply from scratch.

17. Automate Report Generation from Your Analytics Tools

    Data analysts and marketing professionals recommend setting up scheduled reports in tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Tableau. Most analytics platforms allow you to create custom reports that automatically generate and email to stakeholders on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Instead of logging in to pull numbers and create presentations manually, you receive formatted reports without any action required. This ensures consistent tracking and communication while freeing up hours that would otherwise go to data compilation. The reports arrive reliably whether you remember them or not.

18. Set Up Automatic Appointment Reminders

    Healthcare providers, consultants, and service businesses reduce no-shows and save coordination time by automating appointment reminders. Tools like Acuity Scheduling, Square Appointments, and practice management software can send email and text reminders at intervals you specify before each appointment. Clients receive confirmation and reminder messages automatically, reducing the need for manual follow-up calls or emails. This automation typically cuts no-show rates significantly and eliminates the administrative burden of confirming appointments individually. For businesses with high appointment volume, the time savings can reach ten or more hours weekly.

19. Use Auto-Fill for Forms and Checkout Processes

    Web users and online shoppers save considerable time by enabling auto-fill features in their browsers and password managers. Modern browsers and tools like LastPass or 1Password can automatically populate your name, address, payment information, and other common form fields. Instead of typing the same information repeatedly across different websites, you can complete forms and purchases in seconds. While each individual use might save only a minute or two, the cumulative effect for people who frequently shop online, fill out applications, or complete web forms adds up to several hours per month.

20. Automate Project Status Updates with Management Software

    Project managers and team leaders use tools like Asana, Monday, and Basecamp to automatically track and communicate project progress. These platforms can send digest emails, post status updates to Slack, or generate progress reports based on task completion without manual intervention. Team members update their work in one place, and stakeholders receive the information they need without status meetings or individual check-ins. Organizations that implement these systems often eliminate several hours of status meetings per week while improving transparency and accountability. The key is choosing a platform your team will actually use and configuring notifications thoughtfully.

The professionals who consistently achieve more with less time share a common trait: they let proven systems handle the repetitive work. Each automation on this list has earned its place through real-world results and expert endorsement across industries. Start by implementing two or three automations that address your biggest time drains, then gradually add more as you experience the benefits. The goal is not to automate everything, but to free yourself from tasks that drain energy without adding value. With these expert-backed strategies in place, those ten-plus hours you reclaim each week can go toward the work that actually matters, whether that is strategic thinking, creative projects, or simply having more time for yourself.