Automation

  • SaneBox Keeps my Inbox Clear and my Heart Rate Down (Friday Toolkit Preview)

    Quick Note: This is a new newsletter series I started on Friday called “Friday Toolkit.” Each month I will go in-depth with one of my recommendations – how I use it and why I think it’s useful. I’ve decided to make the first one public. If you like it, you can sign up for my newsletter using the form in the sidebar, or below.

    I’ve been thinking of doing something like this for a while, but haven’t pulled the trigger. I want to thank SaneBox for partnering with me to push me over the edge. This first edition of The Friday Toolkit is brought to you by them; I chose SaneBox as the partner because I’ve been using them all year and am a huge fan. I’m excited to share a little bit more about them.

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  • Writing Faster Newsletters with Zapier, Pocket, and Evernote

    Over the past year or so, I’ve made a concerted effort to grow my mailing list. After lots of conventional wisdom from podcast guests, blog posts, and online courses, I felt it wasn’t really an option to ignore the advice! But one of the hurdles for me was actually putting together the newsletter. It was time consuming and not all that fun…until I started using Zapier for the heavy-lifting.

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  • How I Set Up My Stream Deck

    The Elgato Stream Deck has becoming an invaluable piece of tech for me. It’s a streamlined way for me to manage live streams, devices, and automation. I absolutely love it. In-fact, since getting my first 15-Key Stream Deck, I’ve expanded to a 32-Key…and bought two more.

    Here’s how I’ve configured all of my Stream Decks.

    Last updated April 16, 2025.

  • 7+ Ways To Learn Task Automation

    Something I say a lot is automation helps you cut away the things you don’t need to do, so you can focus more time on the actual tasks that require your attention. I also talk about tools I like using for automation.

    But where do you learn how to automate? Do you just try things and see what happens? Are there tutorials? Courses? Here are 7 fantastic resources for learning how to automate.

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  • Automating Saved Links with Pocket And Zapier

    Back before I decided to start automating more, the way I would compile my newsletters was to save links to Pocket and then on Monday mornings, scour them for what to share, create the links, and sum up the stories. I also had to be careful that I didn’t share the same link two weeks in a row.

    It was a lot of work. And then I realized that I could save myself a lot of trouble by using Pocket to automate not only my newsletter, but social sharing as well.

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  • Get Your Inbox Under Control (Automatically) with SaneBox

    Full Disclosure: SaneBox is a sponsor of my podcast, but boy do I love this tool.

    Have you ever seen someone’s phone and noticed an email notification badge with a 4 digit number (OR ARE YOU THAT PERSON)? It makes my skin crawl! My inbox serves as a todo list for me, so a lot of email in my inbox gives me agita (a word we Italians use for “stress” or “anxiety”). Even with the way I manage email, I feel like I saw too much. I was distracted by it too much. I wasted too much time. Until I started using SaneBox.

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  • How You Can Start Automating Today

    Time is also the only thing you can’t buy, or get more of. Do things that will save you time, and you will grow your business. I truly believe that and one of the best ways to find time is by automating the things you personally don’t have to do. There are lots of tools out there like Zapier, IFTTT, and Siri Shortcuts on iOS to make automating these fast and easy. Here are a few tips so you can start automating today.

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  • Automating More, Doing Less

    My yearly theme for 2020 is Depth, which means I want to cut away a lot of stuff I don’t need to do, and really dig in deep on a few select activities – both personal and professional. One of the focus areas is using more tools to my advantage and automating more. This will allow me to do fewer small tasks, so I can handle the big tasks. And over the holiday break, I automated 3 areas of my podcast that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time.

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