Write the steps down before you automate them

It is tempting to jump straight into building a tool once you decide to automate something, but the step that actually matters most happens before that: writing the process down in plain language, in order, with no steps skipped. A tool can only follow a process you can already describe clearly to another person. I write mine out this same way, in plain language, before I let a tool near any part of it.

This matters because most automation problems trace back to a process that was never fully written out, just carried around in someone's head with a few unspoken exceptions. Writing it down forces those exceptions into the open, where you can decide whether the system should handle them or whether a person should still step in when they come up.

Try this today: take the task you plan to automate next and write out every single step in order, including anything you would normally skip mentioning because it feels obvious.