The Second-Time Tax

Copying the same data points for the hundredth time feels normal. Building automation feels like extra work. It's a natural response - figuring out that Excel formula or finding the right Chrome extension takes longer than just copying and pasting one more time.

There was once at work that there was a task to pull metrics from 50 campaign reports. The manual way was straightforward: open report, copy numbers, paste into master sheet. 30 minutes of work.

The team member responsible spent an hour building a complex Google Sheets formula instead. At the time, it seemed like wasting an extra 30 minutes. Now the same task takes 3 minutes.

The next day, another team member needed the same data. Instead of their own 30-minute copy-paste session, they used the formula. 3 minutes again.

The math works out clearly. One hour spent instead of 30 minutes. Seems inefficient until you factor in the fourth or fifth time someone needs those numbers. After that, it's all saved time.

But time savings isn't the interesting part. Removing repetitive tasks changes how people think about the work. Instead of thinking about copying and pasting, they think about what the numbers mean. Instead of checking if they missed a cell, they analyze patterns.

A recent example: Daily campaign performance needed manual updates across different platforms. Someone spent three hours writing a script. Felt excessive for a 20-minute daily task. That script now runs automatically every morning. No one thinks about updates anymore. They just analyze results.

The concept applies to any repetitive task. Email responses. Report formatting. Data cleaning.

The time investment in automation compounds with each use.