To Automate or Not to Automate that is the Question

The problem with writing about technology is that anything you write becomes rapidly outdated. Not so the dilemma of automation. This dilemma is ever-present. It boils down to the following question - is it worth automating every small task? Small fiddly tasks tend to recur quite frequently e.g. a table formatting algorithm for moving data from Excel to Word. Is it worth automating? It depends on your time constraints. You are sacrificing short-term for long-term benefit. Automation requires intellectual effort. Intellectual effort that could arguably be used more productively understanding and executing the task at hand rather than automating it.