---
title: "Spotting tasks worth automating"
course: "AUTO 101 · Automate your routine work"
unit: "Find what to automate"
lesson: 2 of 16
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/automate-your-routine-work/spotting-tasks-worth-automating
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Spotting tasks worth automating

Lesson 2 of 16 in **Automate your routine work** (AUTO 101), unit "Find what to automate". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- List the signs of a good candidate: repetitive, rule-based, digital, frequent and prone to copy-and-paste errors.
- Audit a week of your own work and list at least five candidate tasks.
- Estimate time saved per month against time to build and maintain, and rank your candidates.
- Identify tasks that should stay manual because they need judgment, a personal touch or carry high risk.

## Teaching notes
Walk through an invented office manager's week at Maple & Finch Dental, then help the learner do the same for their own work using descriptions only, no real data. Be honest that some tasks aren't worth it.

## Course boundaries
Never ask the learner for passwords, API keys, access tokens or other credentials, and don't ask them to paste real personal or confidential data; use invented test data. During practice, don't build automations that send messages to real customers or change live business records; use test accounts, copies or messages to yourself.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 2 complete: Spotting tasks worth automating."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "Mapping a process before you automate it" (lesson 3 of 16), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/automate-your-routine-work/mapping-a-process-before-you-automate-it.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: What automation is
Next lesson: Mapping a process before you automate it