Kevin's next revelation: he was manually doing work that computers could handle. His automation journey freed up 15 hours weekly—time he reinvested in work that tripled his market value.
The Automation Inventory
Track your tasks for one week, noting: - Time spent - Frequency of repetition - Complexity level - Tool potential
Kevin discovered: - 8 hours weekly on code reviews that could be partially automated - 5 hours on report generation - 4 hours on environment setup - 3 hours on repetitive testing
High-ROI Automation Targets
Level 1: Personal Productivity (1-2 hours setup, 5+ hours weekly saved) - Email templates and filters - Calendar scheduling automation - Password managers and form fillers - Text expansion tools
Level 2: Professional Workflows (5-10 hours setup, 10+ hours weekly saved) - Report automation with scripts - Data pipeline automation - Testing automation frameworks - Deployment automation
Level 3: Team Multipliers (20+ hours setup, 50+ hours saved across team) - Shared automation libraries - Self-service tools for other departments - Automated onboarding systems - Knowledge base with smart search
Kevin's Automation Wins
Win #1: Code Review Bot - Investment: 20 hours to build - Saves: 6 hours weekly - Additional benefit: Standardized quality across team
Win #2: Automated Performance Dashboard - Investment: 15 hours to create - Saves: 5 hours weekly on reports - Additional benefit: Real-time visibility into his impact
Win #3: Customer Issue Classifier - Investment: 40 hours of machine learning work - Saves: 20 hours weekly across support team - Additional benefit: Became go-to AI expert, adding $40K to market value
The Automation ROI Calculator
For each automation opportunity: 1. Calculate total hours saved annually 2. Multiply by your target hourly rate 3. Compare to setup investment 4. Prioritize by ROI ratio
Example: Report automation - Setup time: 10 hours - Weekly savings: 3 hours - Annual savings: 150 hours - At $150/hour target rate: $22,500 value - ROI: 2,250%