--- title: How to Map a Process and Decide What to Automate description: Write one process as a list of tasks, then sort each into Automate, AI, Hand off or Keep. Four questions, a worked example, and the first move for each. image: https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/hubfs/raw_assets/public/cleo/site-theme/images/sharkitect-icon.png --- [Skip to content](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process#main-content) [![](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/hs-fs/hubfs/raw_assets/public/cleo/site-theme/images/sharkitect-icon.png?width=36&height=36&name=sharkitect-icon.png) SHARKITECTDIGITAL](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/) [Services](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/services) [Industries](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/industries) Free resources [Task SorterSort one task in about three minutes](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/task-sorter) [GuidesHow-to guides for owners](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides) [Operator NotesShort articles from the field](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/blog) [Proof](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/case-studies) [About](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/about) [Contact](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/contact) [Book the Assessment](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/architecture-assessment) EN ES [Book the Assessment](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/architecture-assessment) 1. [Home](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/) 2. [Guides](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides) 3. How to map a workflow, step by step: what to automate, give to AI, hand off or keep Guide # How to map a workflow, step by step: what to automate, give to AI, hand off or keep By [Christopher Sharkey](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/about) · Last checked October 1, 2026 · Last updated October 4, 2026 **By the end, you'll have one process written as a list of its tasks, every task labeled Automate, AI, Hand off or Keep, and the first move for each label. It takes about 30 minutes, plus one normal run of the process.** "Map" here means a written list, one task per line. No flowchart, no software. > ### At a glance > > **Who it's for:** Owners of any small business who keep asking "should I hire for this, buy software for it, or just keep doing it myself?" > > **What you'll be able to do:** Break one process into its tasks and decide, task by task, what software does, what AI drafts, what someone else does, and what stays with you. > > **Time it takes:** About 30 minutes of sorting, plus writing the tasks down during one normal run of the process. > > **The steps:** > > 1. [Pick the one process that keeps landing on you](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process#step-1) > 2. [Write down its tasks while you do it](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process#step-2) > 3. [Ask four questions of each task, in order](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process#step-3) > 4. [Check what's left in Keep](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process#step-4) > 5. [Sort your team's work the same way](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process#step-5) > 6. [Take each label to its first move](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process#step-6) > > **Last checked:** October 1, 2026 ## Why this keeps happening Tuesday, 6:40 in the evening. You sit down to eat, and the phone buzzes. Someone needs a price, a yes, or a password, and only you have it. It happened Monday too, with a different person and a different question. So you ask the usual question: should I hire for this, or buy software for it? Both answers disappoint for the same reason. You asked about the whole process, and a process is a bundle of tasks. Some of those tasks need you. Most of the ones that interrupt dinner don't. Test it on your business. Name the process you're sure only you can run, and write down its first five tasks. Count how many truly need you. ## How the sorting works You don't sort a whole process. You break it into its tasks and sort each task. Expect the process to split: some tasks go to software, some to AI, some to another person, and some stay with you. To sort a single task you're unsure about, use the [Task Sorter](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/task-sorter). It asks the same four questions. **If you're the owner, there are four labels** (Step 3 shows the order to ask about them): - **Automate:** software does the task the same way every time. - **AI:** AI drafts it, and a person checks it. - **Hand off:** someone else does it, once the steps are written down. - **Keep:** it stays with you, because it's a decision no one else should make, even with a written rule or limit. **If you're sorting an employee's work, there are three.** Employees don't hand work off; doing the work is what they're paid for. So each task is Automate, AI or Keep, and Keep means the task stays with them. ## Step 1: Pick the one process that keeps landing on you Look for a process that pulls you in at least once a week. Choose by how often it interrupts you, not by how big it is. You'll use the same method on every process after this one, so start where the interruptions are. **How to do it.** Scroll back through last week's calls and texts and count which process generated the most of them. Typical answers: "where's my order?" questions at a shop, pricing a change order on a site, booking new patients at a clinic, renewals at an insurance office. Name where it begins and where it's finished: "Quote new work, from the customer's first call to the quote in their inbox." Came from the Task Sorter? Pick the process that task belongs to. **How you'll know it worked.** You can name the process, how often it lands on you, and where it begins and finishes. **Watch out for:** picking the process that worries you most instead of the one that interrupts you most. Worry points at a decision. Interruptions point at tasks you can move. ## Step 2: Write down its tasks while you do it Run the process once with a note open, and log each move and each "if this, then that" as it happens. Sorting needs the real tasks, and you only see them while the work is in front of you. **How to do it.** Give each task one line and one verb: "Look up the customer." "Measure the yard." "Send the quote." If a line has "and" or "then" in it, it's two tasks, so split it. "Look up last year's rate and decide whether to honor it" becomes "Look up last year's rate" and "Decide whether to honor it." Next to any choice, write the rule you used: "Repeat customer: last year's rate." A three-column list works well: | Task | The rule I used, if any | Label (Step 3) | | --- | --- | --- | | Look up last year's rate | | | | Decide whether to honor it | Repeat customer: yes, unless it's over two years old | | **How you'll know it worked.** Every line has one verb, and no line has "and" or "then" in it. **Watch out for:** writing the process from memory at your desk. A remembered list skips the quick checks you do without thinking, and those are the tasks that interrupt your evenings. ## Step 3: Ask four questions of each task, in order Take your list from Step 2 and ask these four questions of each task. Stop at the first yes. That answer is the task's label. | # | Ask | If yes, the label is | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Is it a decision no one else should make, even with a written rule or limit? | **Keep** | | 2 | Could software do it the same way every time, with no judgment? | **Automate** | | 3 | Does it turn information into words, like a draft, a summary or a comparison? | **AI**, and a person checks it | | 4 | Could someone else do it once the steps are written down? | **Hand off** | If a task seems to fit two questions, or none, it's often two tasks in one: a decision or a lookup, plus the conversation around it. Split it, then ask the questions of each part. "Tell a customer where their order is" becomes "Look up the order status" and "Send the customer the status", and both become Automate with an automatic status message. **How to do it.** Here is the quote process from Step 1, sorted: | Task | Label | | --- | --- | | Collect the customer's details: name, address, what they need | Automate (a web form or booking page that fills in your customer list) | | Look up last year's rate | Automate (a saved search in your customer list) | | Decide whether to honor last year's rate | Automate (the two-year rule from Step 2 decides it) | | Measure the site | Hand off | | Note anything that changes the price, such as difficult access | Hand off | | Write the quote | AI drafts it, a person checks it | | Write the cover email | AI drafts it, a person checks it | | Approve any quote over $5,000 | Keep | | Follow up if there's no answer in three days | Automate (a scheduled reminder) | The process came out split across all four labels. That's the normal result of sorting, not a sign you did it wrong. Notice the rate decision: once you wrote the two-year rule in Step 2, someone else could make the call, so it answers no to question 1, and software can apply the rule. Writing down the rule is how a decision leaves your desk. **How you'll know it worked.** Every task has exactly one label. **Watch out for:** labeling a task by who does it today. "I always do the quotes" is a habit, not an answer. Ask the four questions about the task itself. **Why the order matters.** Keep comes first, so a real decision never slips to a machine or someone else's desk by accident. Automate comes before AI because a fixed rule needs no one to read its output, and an AI draft always does. OpenAI's own help page says AI output is a draft: "[Use ChatGPT as a first draft, not a final source](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8313428-does-chatgpt-tell-the-truth)OpenAI Help Center"Does ChatGPT tell the truth?"page shows "Updated: 2 months ago" (read 2026-10-01)“Use ChatGPT as a first draft, not a final source. Please check important information.”[Read the source →](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8313428-does-chatgpt-tell-the-truth)." **Why the work splits.** A [2016 OECD study](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2016/05/the-risk-of-automation-for-jobs-in-oecd-countries_g17a27d8/5jlz9h56dvq7-en.pdf)OECDArntz, Gregory and Zierahn, "The Risk of Automation for Jobs in OECD Countries: A Comparative Analysis," Working Paper No. 189May 2016“while Frey and Osborne find that 47 % of US jobs are automatable, our corresponding figure is only 9 %.”[Read the source →](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2016/05/the-risk-of-automation-for-jobs-in-oecd-countries_g17a27d8/5jlz9h56dvq7-en.pdf) shows the same pattern across whole economies. An earlier study looked at whole occupations and put 47% of US employment at high risk of automation. The OECD researchers looked at the tasks inside those occupations instead. For the US, the share fell to 9%. Even in "high risk" occupations, people did tasks that are hard to automate. The study predates today's AI tools, so read it for the method (look at tasks, not titles), not as a forecast. ## Step 4: Check what's left in Keep Some tasks sit in Keep that don't belong there. Give each Keep task two tests. Test 1: is it a decision, or is it gathering, typing or chasing? Test 2: could someone else make this call if you gave them a rule or a limit with a number on it? Test 1 moves the gathering, typing and chasing out of Keep. Test 2 moves only the calls a rule or limit can settle. If no rule or limit fits, the call stays with you. Whatever moves goes back through questions 2 to 4. **How to do it.** Rewrite each Keep task so it starts with a decision verb: approve, decide, sign, choose. "Get three quotes and pick one" is two tasks: "Get three quotes" (Hand off) and "Pick one" (Keep). Then ask the limit question. "Approve every refund" can become "Refunds under $100: the front desk decides. Over $100: ask me." The small refunds move to Hand off with a number on them, and only the big ones stay with you. For what's left, have whoever does the legwork send each decision with the facts, two or three options and their recommendation, so your part is yes or no. **How you'll know it worked.** Every Keep task starts with a decision verb, involves no gathering or typing, and is a call you wouldn't let anyone else make, even with a limit. **Watch out for:** aiming for a business that never needs you. That isn't the goal. The goal is a clean desk. Calls like buying the building, hiring a manager or signing for a $40,000 piece of software still come to you. The comparing, the quotes and the demos that come with them go elsewhere. ## Step 5: Sort your team's work the same way Sit down this week with one person and one process they run every week. Write its tasks together, then sort each task with three labels: Automate, AI or Keep. An employee doesn't hand work off; doing the work is what they're paid for. **How to do it.** Write the tasks as in Step 2. Then ask two questions of each task, in this order: 1. Could software do it the same way every time, with no judgment? **Automate.** 2. Does it turn information into words? **AI**, and they check it. Everything else stays with them: **Keep**. For an employee, Keep covers any task that stays theirs, not only decisions. Here is a bookkeeper at a small agency, closing the month: | Task | Label | | --- | --- | | Bring in the month's transactions | Automate (a bank feed) | | Write a short note to the owner on anything unusual | AI drafts it, the bookkeeper checks it | | Decide how to record an expense that fits no category | Keep (stays with the bookkeeper) | Here is one process sorted from the staff's side, with the employee labels, so Keep means the task stays with the staff. It's an estimating process in a business whose two programs didn't talk to each other, so every estimate was built and retyped by hand: | Task | Label | | --- | --- | | Measure the rooms | Keep (stays with the staff) | | Enter the measurements | Keep (stays with the staff) | | Do the square-footage math | Automate | | Build the estimate | Automate | | Copy the estimate into the accounting program | Automate | | Approve the estimate before it goes to the customer | Keep (stays with the staff) | No task needed AI. The fix was getting the two programs to share the numbers. **How you'll know it worked.** The person can point to the tasks they'll stop doing by hand, and the ones that are still theirs. **Watch out for:** sorting someone's work without them. They know the small tasks you don't, and they'll trust a list they helped write. ## Step 6: Take each label to its first move Each label leads to a different next move. Pick one label and make its first move this week; don't try all four at once. **How to do it.** - **Automate:** before you buy anything, check whether software you already pay for can do the task. Open its settings and look for words like recurring, reminder, scheduled or automatic. If the task is retyping between two programs, look in each one's settings for Integrations or Connected apps. If nothing you own can do it, that's when to look at buying software. Until then, keep doing it by hand. - **AI:** pick one task and try it with a free AI tool. Read every word before anything leaves the building. - **Hand off:** turn the Hand off tasks into a one-page sheet for the person taking them over: what to do, what a good one looks like, and who to ask. The next guide shows how to make it stick. No one to hand it to yet? Write the sheet anyway, then ask questions 2 and 3 of each line. Anything software or AI can take needs no hire, and the sheet is how you'll train your first hire. - **Keep:** leave these with you, and ask for each decision to arrive ready to make (Step 4). **How you'll know it worked.** One task that used to need you, or needed retyping, now happens without either. Leave it a week. If the work still comes back to you, the written steps were incomplete, not the person or the tool. Add the missing step and try again. **Watch out for:** sorting your whole business in one sitting. Sort one process, make one move, then pick the next process. ## When this is not the answer - **The process is one decision with nothing around it.** There's nothing to sort. The fix is a rule that makes the decision faster, or a limit that lets someone else make it. - **You don't run the process yourself.** Don't sort it from your desk. Sort it with the person who does it, as in Step 5. - **The law decides who does a task.** If a task needs a license, such as a diagnosis or an inspection sign-off, the person who holds the license does it, whatever the four questions say. If that's you, it's Keep. If it's a licensed person on your team, it's Hand off, to them. - **New software or new pricing is weeks away.** Wait for the switch, then sort. A sort done now describes a process that's about to disappear. ## Questions owners ask ### Isn't this just delegating? Delegating is one of the four labels. Sorting first catches the tasks that shouldn't go to a person at all: a task software can do the same way every time suits software, and a first draft suits AI. A new hire who spends the day on tasks a machine could do soon ends up as busy as you were. ### Do I need to buy software to automate anything? Not to start. Look through the settings of what you already pay for, such as repeating invoices, appointment reminders and saved reports, before you shop. Buy only when a task you've labeled Automate can't be done by anything you own. Then you'll know exactly what you're buying it for. ### Is it safe to use AI on business work? For drafts, summaries and comparisons, yes, as long as a person reads the result before it's used. The AI label always includes that check. Don't paste in anything you wouldn't put in an email to a stranger, such as customer records, passwords or bank details. ### What if a task could go in two places? First check whether it's two tasks in one, as in Step 3, and split it if so. If it really is one task, the first yes in the order wins: Keep, then Automate, then AI, then Hand off. ### What about a task that's part decision, part conversation? Split it. Calling a client about a price increase is a decision (what to offer them) and a conversation (the call). The decision is Keep. The call, with your offer and limits written down, is Hand off. For your biggest client you may still choose to make the call yourself; that's your choice, not something the sorting forces on you. ### How often should I re-sort a process? When the tools change or the process changes, and otherwise about once a year. A task that needed you last year may have an Automate setting this year. ## Keep learning - **[How to hand work off so it doesn't come back to you](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/hand-work-off):** the next guide. What to do with the tasks you labeled Hand off. - **[How to stop typing the same thing twice](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/connect-your-business-tools):** what to do with the tasks you labeled Automate. - **[How to use AI safely](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/ai-agents-for-small-business):** what to let AI draft in the tasks you labeled AI, and what to check. - **Operator Note (a short article that answers one question): [AI vs Automation: Which Tasks to Hand Over, and Which to Keep Human](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/blog/ai-vs-automation-which-tasks-to-hand-over)** - **[The Task Sorter](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/task-sorter):** sort one task you're unsure about, in about three minutes. [Next →How to hand work off so it doesn't come back to you](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/hand-work-off) ## Sources 1. OECD. Melanie Arntz, Terry Gregory and Ulrich Zierahn, "The Risk of Automation for Jobs in OECD Countries: A Comparative Analysis," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 189, 2016. The 47% figure it discusses comes from an earlier study by Frey and Osborne (2013), which the OECD paper compares against. [oecd.org](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2016/05/the-risk-of-automation-for-jobs-in-oecd-countries_g17a27d8/5jlz9h56dvq7-en.pdf). Last checked October 1, 2026. 2. OpenAI Help Center, "Does ChatGPT tell the truth?" [help.openai.com](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8313428-does-chatgpt-tell-the-truth). Last checked October 1, 2026. Last checked October 1, 2026 · Last updated October 4, 2026 ![](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/hs-fs/hubfs/raw_assets/public/cleo/site-theme/images/sharkitect-icon.png?width=34&height=34&name=sharkitect-icon.png) SHARKITECTDIGITAL No hype. We teach you how it works. Kansas City, Missouri · serving the KC metro in person and the US remotely. [![Sharkitect Digital BBB Business Review](https://seal-nebraska.bbb.org/logo/sehzbum/bbb-1000086813.png)](https://www.bbb.org/us/mo/raytown/profile/artificial-intelligence/sharkitect-digital-0714-1000086813/#sealclick) ## Talk to us [(816) 443-0826](tel:+18164430826) [solutions@sharkitectdigital.com](mailto:solutions@sharkitectdigital.com) [Book the Architecture Assessment](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/architecture-assessment) ## Services - [The Architecture Assessment](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/architecture-assessment) - [The AI Transformation Partnership](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/services#two) - [AI, automation or a person?](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/services#which) - [How we work](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/services) ## Free to use - [All guides](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides) - [Lead follow-up guide](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/lead-follow-up) - [Connecting your tools](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/connect-your-business-tools) - [How to map a workflow](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process) - [The Task Sorter](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/task-sorter) ## Company - [About](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/about) - [Case studies](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/case-studies) - [FAQ](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/faq) - [Industries](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/industries) - [Kansas City](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/locations/kansas-city) - [Contact](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/contact) © 2026 Sharkitect Digital. All rights reserved. [Privacy](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/privacy-policy) [Terms](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/terms-of-use) [Text messages](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/sms-opt-in) Cookie settings **Cookies.** Analytics so we know which pages actually help. [What we collect](https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/privacy-policy) Accept Essential only ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/#organization", "@type" : "Organization", "areaServed" : [ { "@type" : "City", "name" : "Kansas City" }, { "@type" : "Country", "name" : "United States" } ], "description" : "An AI transformation consulting firm for owner-run businesses with 5 to 30 people and $1M to $10M in revenue. We start with the work, not the technology. We find what's holding the business back and fix it one constraint at a time.", "email" : "solutions@sharkitectdigital.com", "founder" : { "@id" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/#chris" }, "foundingDate" : "2025-12-23", "knowsAbout" : [ "AI transformation consulting", "Business process automation", "Workflow mapping", "System integration", "Standard operating procedures (SOPs)", "Training owners and teams to use AI and automation" ], "legalName" : "Sharkitect Digital LLC", "name" : "Sharkitect Digital", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.google.com/maps?cid=11278465346363269515", "https://www.linkedin.com/company/sharkitect-digital", "https://www.facebook.com/SharkitectDigital", "https://www.instagram.com/sharkitect_digital", "https://www.trustpilot.com/review/sharkitectdigital.com", "https://nextdoor.com/pages/sharkitect-digital-independence-mo/", "https://www.yelp.com/biz/sharkitect-digital-kansas-city-3", "https://clutch.co/profile/sharkitect-digital", "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sharkitect-digital", "https://www.manta.com/c/m1h2vmn/sharkitect-digital", "https://foursquare.com/v/sharkitect-digital/6aa1ad02f0f26006a926953f", "https://www.bbb.org/us/mo/raytown/profile/artificial-intelligence/sharkitect-digital-0714-1000086813", "https://www.youtube.com/@SharkitectDigital" ], "telephone" : "+1-816-443-0826", "url" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/#chris", "@type" : "Person", "description" : "Founder of Sharkitect Digital. Previously spent about ten years as a healthcare Performance Improvement Specialist, finding what was broken inside working operations.", "familyName" : "Sharkey", "givenName" : "Christopher", "image" : "", "jobTitle" : "Founder & CEO, AI Adoption Specialist", "knowsAbout" : [ "Business process automation", "System integration", "QuickBooks Online integrations", "Construction and trades software", "Lead response automation", "AI adoption in owner-run businesses" ], "name" : "Christopher Sharkey", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-sharkey-aitp", "https://www.crunchbase.com/person/christopher-sharkey-f9f0" ], "url" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/about", "worksFor" : { "@id" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/#organization" } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/#website", "@type" : "WebSite", "name" : "Sharkitect Digital", "publisher" : { "@id" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/#organization" }, "url" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement" : [ { "@type" : "ListItem", "item" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/", "name" : "Home", "position" : 1 }, { "@type" : "ListItem", "item" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides", "name" : "Guides", "position" : 2 }, { "@type" : "ListItem", "item" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process", "name" : "How to map a workflow, step by step: what to automate, give to AI, hand off or keep", "position" : 3 } ] } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "Article", "author" : { "@id" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/#chris" }, "citation" : [ "https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8313428-does-chatgpt-tell-the-truth", "https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2016/05/the-risk-of-automation-for-jobs-in-oecd-countries_g17a27d8/5jlz9h56dvq7-en.pdf" ], "dateModified" : "2026-10-04", "datePublished" : "2026-09-21", "description" : "Write one process as a list of tasks, then sort each into Automate, AI, Hand off or Keep. Four questions, a worked example, and the first move for each.", "headline" : "How to map a workflow, step by step: what to automate, give to AI, hand off or keep", "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/guides/how-to-map-a-process", "publisher" : { "@id" : "https://www.sharkitectdigital.com/#organization" } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "FAQPage", "mainEntity" : [ { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Delegating is one of the four labels. Sorting first catches the tasks that shouldn't go to a person at all: a task software can do the same way every time suits software, and a first draft suits AI. A new hire who spends the day on tasks a machine could do soon ends up as busy as you were." }, "name" : "Isn't this just delegating?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Not to start. Look through the settings of what you already pay for, such as repeating invoices, appointment reminders and saved reports, before you shop. Buy only when a task you've labeled Automate can't be done by anything you own. Then you'll know exactly what you're buying it for." }, "name" : "Do I need to buy software to automate anything?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "For drafts, summaries and comparisons, yes, as long as a person reads the result before it's used. The AI label always includes that check. Don't paste in anything you wouldn't put in an email to a stranger, such as customer records, passwords or bank details." }, "name" : "Is it safe to use AI on business work?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "First check whether it's two tasks in one, as in Step 3, and split it if so. If it really is one task, the first yes in the order wins: Keep, then Automate, then AI, then Hand off." }, "name" : "What if a task could go in two places?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Split it. Calling a client about a price increase is a decision (what to offer them) and a conversation (the call). The decision is Keep. The call, with your offer and limits written down, is Hand off. For your biggest client you may still choose to make the call yourself; that's your choice, not something the sorting forces on you." }, "name" : "What about a task that's part decision, part conversation?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "When the tools change or the process changes, and otherwise about once a year. A task that needed you last year may have an Automate setting this year." }, "name" : "How often should I re-sort a process?" } ] } ```