There’s a popular analogy in project management that goes like this: Think of a work day as an empty jar that you can fill with various objects. There’s sand, which represents the countless tiny, repetitive actions that consume your team’s energy and focus. There are pebbles, which represent important but routine tasks. And then there are rocks, which represent big, strategic projects that drive growth.
If you fill your jar with sand and pebbles, you’ll never find space to fit the rocks in the jar, the story goes. But if you start with the rocks first, you can fill the remaining space with pebbles first and then sand — fitting way more into the jar overall.
Automation takes this idea and promises something even better: By automating your tasks, you can reduce the amount of pebbles and sand you need to fit in the jar in the first place. This creates space for more rocks in your jar than ever — that is, more meaningful work that truly matters.
Regardless of where your company sits on the process automation maturity model — whether you’re just starting out or well along the journey — these practical changes can drive significant improvements. Any business can benefit from small, targeted improvements that deliver immediate value. Here, we walk you through six practical, high-impact changes to overcome obstacles and transform your workflows — one micro-automation at a time.
The two biggest challenges when building process changes
Two critical roadblocks often derail process automation efforts: unclear job descriptions and human bottlenecks. Understanding these challenges is the first step to creating more efficient workflows.
1. Misunderstanding the tasks at hand
One of the biggest challenges in process management is a lack of clarity around essential steps or tasks, according to Jonathan Butler, Group Product Manager at Nintex. This often leads to confusion and inefficiency.
“When you’re mapping out your processes, you usually encounter a few dark undefined zones at the edges,” says Butler. “The ‘sea dragons,’” he adds with a laugh.
These “sea dragons” appear where process documentation ends and individual interpretation begins. Like mythical monsters lurking in uncharted waters, unmapped processes create unpredictability and risk — capable of derailing projects and swallowing productivity whole. Without clear guidelines, team members resort to their own methods, leading to misalignments and inconsistencies.
“That’s when people start making things up,” notes Butler. “I do it one way, Kat does it another way, Chi does it a third way, and Ryan does it a fourth way. And everyone thinks they’re doing it the right way. But now you’ve got four different types of inputs coming into a single system.”
The result? Multiple conflicting approaches to a single task. What seems like quick problem-solving can quickly become a source of major angst, inefficiencies, and errors. The solution is simple but essential: use process management software to create clear, consistent documentation that gives everyone the same playbook.
2. Human bottlenecks: The ‘work in progress’ problem
Another key challenge in process management is the reality of human bottlenecks, which often arise when individuals become overloaded with tasks.
“Human-driven processes are more likely to result in bottlenecks than fully automated ones,” Butler explains. “And while these bottlenecks pose a problem, it’s not to say we should remove humans from processes altogether. Rather, it’s about identifying those bottlenecks and figuring out how to resolve or work around them.”
One of the biggest sources of these bottlenecks is when a single person is asked to take on too much — becoming the process WIP, or work in progress. The warning signs are familiar: tasks pile up, a single worker is the only one who knows how to complete critical work, and the entire process slows to a crawl.
“There’s this whole science around how to identify and solve the process WIP issue,” says Butler. “Often, it’s not just that the person doesn’t have enough time to do everything — it’s that they may not know how to delegate or communicate their process so others can help.”
The key is to create systems that distribute work more effectively, with process maps clear enough that multiple team members can step in and help when needed.
6 simple process changes for major impact
Process optimization doesn’t have to mean massive overhauls or complicated restructuring. Sometimes, the most powerful improvements come from small, strategic tweaks that create ripple effects throughout your entire workflow.
1. Set up micro-automations for repeatable tasks
The secret to meaningful process improvement? Start where it hurts the most.
“Go to your sellers and ask them what part of the job they hate the most,” says Butler. “It’s typically not talking to the customer. It’s the fact that every time they’re done with the call, they have to spend 15 minutes writing out all the stuff they talked about and updating all the opportunities.”
Micro-automations target these low-value, high-repetition tasks that drain your team’s energy and productivity. The goal isn’t to replace human work, but to eliminate the mundane tasks that prevent your team from focusing on what truly matters.
What micro-automations look like:
- Automatically logging call notes into your client relationship management (CRM) system
- Generating follow-up emails after meetings
- Syncing customer information across different platforms
By identifying and automating these small but time-consuming tasks, you save hours of low-value manual work each week and free up your team to focus on high-value strategic work.
The result is that your team experiences less frustration — and gets to spend more time on work that directly impacts your bottom line.
2. Automate approvals
Approval processes are notorious time-sinks that create unnecessary friction in your workflows. Waiting on approvals can feel like watching paint dry — except this paint never seems to dry.
“If you’re doing your approvals through email, for example,” says Butler, “waiting for Kathy to come back and say, ‘Yes, I approve this,’ you can get some quick and easy wins with an automation tool.”
Automating approval workflows helps you turn bottlenecks into smooth, efficient processes. The goal is to quickly route requests to the right people, eliminate manual follow-ups, and ensure decisions happen in real time.
What approval automation looks like:
- Automatically generating approval tasks
- Sending automatic reminders for pending approvals
- Tracking approval status in real-time
- Routing requests to the correct person instantly
When your approval workflows run themselves, your team spends less time chasing signatures and you can make decisions faster and with fewer errors.
3. Prioritize inbox management
Most email tasks are mind-numbingly repetitive. Actions like sorting, flagging, responding to routine requests drain your mental energy without adding real value. But your inbox doesn’t need to be a black hole that consumes hours of productive time.
“Look at the things you repeatedly do in your email and find ways to lift those out of your inbox,” Butler advises.
Inbox automation transforms these repetitive actions into streamlined, efficient processes. Instead of getting lost in email chaos, you create systems that handle routine communications automatically.
What inbox automation can do:
- Create smart filters for urgent messages
- Generate standard responses for common inquiries
- Route client communications to the right team members
- Track and prioritize important conversations
Taming your inbox chaos means reclaiming hours of productive time each week.
4. Eliminate excess data entry
Have you ever found manually (and mindlessly) copying and pasting the same information over and over? Whether you’re in finance, human resources, or sales, this kind of data entry is a productivity crusher that drains workers’ time and increases the risk of costly errors.
“Anytime you have two tabs open and you’re moving things back and forth, that’s an excellent opportunity for automation,” Butler explains.
Automation transforms this task by ensuring information flows seamlessly between systems with zero manual intervention. No more copying, pasting, or double-checking — robotic process automation (RPA) bots ensure accurate data where you need it, when you need it.
What eliminating redundant data entry looks like:
- Transferring invoice details between accounting systems
- Updating employee records across HR software
- Populating forms with existing data
Accurate data that flows seamlessly between systems transforms your operations. Beyond the obvious time savings, you’ll see fewer costly errors, improved employee satisfaction, and processes that feel smooth and seamless.
5. Standardize customer communications
Forget the frustration of staring at a blank screen, agonizing over every word you write. Automation and AI can draft communications in seconds while nailing your company’s messaging.
“Instead of spending 10 minutes writing, you can tell AI, ‘Here are the main value propositions I’m trying to communicate, and here’s the tone I want to do it in.’ Then, you just spend 30 seconds proofreading and a minute personalizing before sending,” says Butler.
Automated customer communications transform how businesses interact, delivering consistent, timely, and personalized messaging without manual heavy lifting.
What automating customer communications looks like:
- Generating on-brand email responses
- Creating personalized communication sequences
- Scheduling follow-up messages
Your customer relationships flourish when you strike the perfect balance between automation and personalization. You deliver more consistent and timely messages — while freeing your team from the stress of composing them.
6. Gain visibility into productivity
You can’t improve what you can’t measure — and most teams have less visibility into their productivity than they think.
According to the latest Salesforce State of Sales report, sales reps spend less than 30% of their time actually selling. The rest? Lost to administrative tasks, meetings, and process inefficiencies that automation could eliminate.
Automated productivity tracking transforms guesswork into data-driven decisions. By capturing real-time information about how work flows through your organization, you can identify bottlenecks, optimize resources, and focus your team on high-value activities.
What automation for visibility into productivity looks like:
- Measuring the frequency of routine tasks
- Comparing perceived versus actual workloads
- Identifying administrative bottlenecks
- Quantifying process inefficiencies
With real data about work habits and workflows, you unlock improvement opportunities you never knew existed. As a result, you can reallocate resources with confidence, identify hidden bottlenecks, and focus your energy precisely where it creates the most value.
The power of strategic automation
Small changes lead to big results. By implementing simple process improvements, you can dramatically increase efficiency, reduce frustration, and free up your team to focus on what truly matters.
Plus, seeing strong results early on sets you up for even more wins. In fact, the 2024 State of Process Automation in the Midmarket Survey found that automation-successful organizations are more than twice as likely to see increased automation budgets compared to those that struggle.
Ultimately, automation is about enhancing your employees’ capabilities and eliminating the tedious work that drains productivity. When you automate repetitive tasks, streamline approvals, manage inboxes efficiently, reduce data entry, optimize communications, and gain process visibility, you create a foundation for sustainable growth in your organization.Ready to transform your business with process automation? Nintex provides the tools you need to identify inefficiencies and build and deploy solutions quickly. Take the first step today — request a demo to see how Nintex can help you turn these simple process changes into major business impact.
