How much time is it worth spending to automate a task you keep repeating?
Savings
Spend up toA safety discount: only count this share of the time you save as really yours to reinvest, since automation rarely recoups every last minute.100%
It saves,time per.
≈ 1.0 hours saved per year
Break-evenThe point where the time spent automating equals the time it saves back. Stay under this budget and the automation comes out ahead. budget
1 year1.0 hours
2 years2.0 hours
3 years3.0 hours
4 years4.0 hours
5 years5.0 hours
The whole landscape
save ↓
0.06/mo
0.25/mo
1/mo
4/mo
16/mo
19s
14s
56s
3.8m
15m
1h
1.3m
56s
3.8m
15m
1h
4h
5m
3.8m
15m
1h
4h
16h
20m
15m
1h
4h
16h
64h
1.3h
1h
4h
16h
64h
256h
Columns are how often you do the task, rows how much each run saves — your task sits in the centre. Each cell is how long you can work on it and still break even within 1 year; brighter means a bigger payoff.