Write the workflow down before you build it

Before opening any tool, write your workflow as plain sentences on paper or in a document — the trigger, then each step in order, then where a person needs to step in. This costs a few minutes and saves far more than that later.

Building directly inside a tool tempts you to solve problems in the wrong order, fiddling with settings before you've decided what the workflow is actually supposed to do. I've done this myself and ended up rebuilding half of it. A written plan forces the thinking to happen first, where it's cheap to change your mind. It also gives you something to hand to a teammate or come back to yourself months later, when the actual tool setup has become a maze of menus you no longer remember.

Treat the written version as the real workflow, and the tool as just where you type it in afterward.

Try this today: write out the plan for your next workflow in plain sentences before you open any automation software.