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Abubakersiddique771
Abubakersiddique771

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I Automated a Task That Took 4 Hours a Week… Here’s What Happened

#java #ai #productivity #rust

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For months, I spent around 4 hours every week on a tedious, repetitive task. It wasn’t glamorous, but it had to be done. That’s 208 hours a year—or over 5 full workweeks—doing something a bot could probably handle better than me.

Finally, I decided to automate it.

In this post, I’ll walk you through:

  • What the task was
  • How I automated it
  • What tools I used
  • The impact it had (spoiler: more than just saved time)
  • What I learned, and what I’d do differently

Let’s dive in.

🧠 The Task: Manual Data Collection for Weekly Reports

I run a small project that relies on trend tracking and content performance across platforms—think Twitter impressions, blog views, email opens, product sales, etc.

Every Monday, I would:

  1. Log into 4–5 platforms
  2. Collect performance metrics (screenshots, copy-paste into Notion)
  3. Write a short report summarizing wins and losses
  4. Email it to myself and a few collaborators

This process took 3.5 to 4 hours because:

  • Most tools don’t have a unified dashboard
  • Some didn’t offer APIs (or I didn’t know how to use them)
  • I’d get distracted mid-way or over-analyze numbers

It was a massive mental tax for the week’s first day.

⚙️ The Automation: Scripts, APIs & a Bit of Glue

Here’s how I automated it step by step.

🧰 Tools I Used

  • Python: For scripting
  • Notion API: To store the weekly data & reports
  • Twitter API (X): To fetch impressions and tweet stats
  • Google Analytics API: To pull blog performance
  • Zapier + Email Parser: For platforms that emailed reports
  • GitHub Actions: For weekly scheduling
  • OpenAI API: To summarize reports in natural language

🧪 Step 1: Data Collection with APIs

I wrote Python scripts to fetch:

  • Tweet analytics from the X API
  • Website data via Google Analytics 4
  • Product sales via Stripe API

Each script fetched the latest week’s data and stored it in JSON.

🧱 Step 2: Structure in Notion

Using Notion’s API, I created a dashboard table:

  • Date
  • Tweet impressions
  • Blog traffic
  • Sales
  • Summary

The data from the Python scripts was pushed automatically every Monday morning.

💬 Step 3: Auto-Summarization

I passed the raw metrics into a prompt for OpenAI (via the gpt-4 model) to generate a summary like:

“This week showed a 14% increase in tweet impressions, mostly due to the viral post on Tuesday. Blog views dipped slightly, while product sales remained stable…”

This saved 20–30 minutes of weekly writing.

⏱ Step 4: Scheduling with GitHub Actions

I scheduled everything using a GitHub Actions workflow that ran the Python script at 7:30am IST every Monday, and posted the summary + metrics to Notion.

📧 Step 5: Email Delivery

Using a Zapier webhook, I triggered an email with the final summary + dashboard link to my inbox and collaborators.

📊 The Results: From Drained to Empowered

Here's what changed:

✅ Time Saved: 4+ Hours Weekly

No surprise here. That’s ~208 hours a year, which I now use for actual strategic work.

✅ No More Dread

I used to dread Mondays. Now I start my week with a clean, automatic overview in my inbox.

✅ Better Decisions

When you remove the grunt work, you're free to act on the insights instead of just gathering them.

✅ Unexpected Bonus: Sharper Writing

Thanks to GPT summarization, I learned how to better structure performance summaries myself. Sometimes the AI’s phrasing was better than mine!

💡 What I Learned

1. APIs Are Underused Superpowers

Even if you're not a backend developer, learning how to use APIs can drastically expand what you're capable of.

2. You Don’t Need a “Perfect” Stack

I mixed automation tools, APIs, scripts, and manual hacks like email parsing. The system isn’t pretty, but it works reliably.

3. Good Enough Is Better Than Never

I postponed automation for months waiting for the “perfect” time or approach. Truth is, a quick-and-dirty system is infinitely better than none.

🚀 Want to Do the Same?

If you're spending time doing repetitive tasks like:

  • Data collection
  • Report writing
  • Format conversions
  • Scraping
  • Content scheduling

…then start small. Pick one step. Automate just that. You'll build momentum.

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If you're a creator, dev, or indie hacker dealing with SEO and marketing data, I made a simple tool that automates Google keyword scraping in seconds — no logins, no fluff.

👉 AotoDocs: The Offline AI Knowledge Base Builder

It’s what I use now to automate research and documentation. Check it out if you're tired of wasting time on repetitive research.

🔁 Over to You

Have you automated something lately?
Or is there a weekly task you know you should automate but haven’t?

Let’s chat in the comments.

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