Week 6: Automate your workflow
Led by Cortney Hickey, EA to the Founder/CEO at Zapier
Tuesday, November 18 at 9am PT | 12pm ET | 5pm UK
Overview
In this session, we learned how to use no code automation tools like Zapier, Make and MS Power Automate to automate your workflow and take your productivity to new heights.
Quick Links
📺 Session recording
🌟 Key points
💻 Session slides
📚 Further resources
Key points
Basic definition of no code automation = having a process done automatically for you, without knowing how to code
This is fantastic as it means you can set repetitive tasks to run in the background, and minimise data entry and app switching — maximizing your efficiency
Cortney gave an overview of how to use Zapier to automate pushing data between different work tools you’re using
A great hack: ChatGPT is well trained on how Zapier works, so you can simply tell it which work tools you use (e.g. Slack, Notion, Gmail), and ask what tasks you could automate. It’s a quick and easy way to generate tailored Zapier ideas without needing to know where to start.
Cortney shared some common initial blockers with EAs she’s trained and worked with:
Time investment concerns
Uncertainty about where to begin
Fear of automations "going off the rails"
Recommended first steps
Start with email/message triage automation
Focus on repetitive tasks that follow "when X happens, do Y" pattern
Use AI-powered "What would you like to automate?" box for guidance
Progress over perfection approach - start basic, enhance over time
Practical use cases for EAs
Calendar & meetings
Auto-create weekly/recurring meeting docs
Interview prep packs from ATS data
Meeting recap summaries from note tools
Auto-share Zoom recordings + AI summary
Email & inbox
CEO inbox triage + smart labels
Customer / candidate routing from inbox
Draft replies for hiring + support
Exec to-dos & planning
Slack “saved” messages → structured tasks
Weekly planning agent (calendar + email + Slack)
Culture & team comms
New-hire welcome messages from HR system
Emoji-triggered “wins” log + Friday update
For more inspo and demos, see Cortney’s further resources slides
Session slides
Further resources
Zapier learn: Level up your automation skills with self-paced courses, tutorials, and learning paths.
Zapier 101 is a great place to start
App Integration pages are helpful for inspiration. You can enter in the most common apps your company uses and see the most popular Zap templates.
5 ways to automate your calendar and stay on top of your schedule
How to automatically create tasks from email or Slack messages
Template for Zap that sends you a digest of tomorrow’s meetings