There’s so much information circulating at our fingertips via social media, email and push notifications. I can’t possibly read all the articles I’m interested in and still get all my work done. When I see an article or website that I want to read when I don’t have time, I click the Zap extension on my browser. Zapier adds the date, title, and URL to a Google Spreadsheet. This spreadsheet serves as a backup brain for me to access later. Now I can close all those browser tabs I used to leave open for weeks.
What is Zapier? Zapier (like “happier”) connects apps. Like the example above connecting my web browser to my spreadsheet. Zapier connects hundreds of apps. Highly likely it will connect apps you use.
I also use Zapier with Gmail. When I apply a Gmail label called “Receipt” to an email, it forwards the email to Expensify from my main email account that Expensify recognizes. When I star an email, it adds it to Aero as a task for me to perform.
Sometimes Zapier doesn’t even need me to do anything to save me time. When someone accepts a proposal from our firm, it automatically kicks off several actions, including scheduling the Onboarding Phase 1 task in Aero and creating the Onboarding Status Tracker for our client to watch the progress we’re making as we get them set up.
Here are some other ideas:
Send a welcome email when a new vendor is added to QuickBooks to request they submit a W9
Auto-save attachments on certain emails to Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc
Copy tweets across multiple Twitter accounts
“Hey Laura, here’s how Zapier saved you time over the past week.” Every week I receive that email from Zapier summarizing how many tasks it automated for me. Time is one of our greatest resources. Zapier helps me not waste it unnecessarily.
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