This past week I automated a boring little workflow I’ve been doing by hand for months.

I figured it might save me an hour here or there.

Then I did the math.

If I had set it up three months ago, it would have given me back 36 hours of focus time. Hours. Over a year, the savings creep toward a free month.

A free month I never got, because I kept telling myself I was too busy to fix the problem that caused it.

A free month that could’ve been spent on higher value projects. On spending time with family. On myself. All those things entrepreneurship is meant to unlock.

Therein lies the trap.

We'll work sixteen extra hours before we spend two hours removing the need for it. We become myopic, staying loyal to “doing the work” instead of stepping back to build a system that does it for us.

Time can be spent. Or it can be invested.

Today’s newsletter is about learning the difference.

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Richard and Kathleen Lo had a problem most entrepreneurs would envy. Too many customers, too fast.

The couple left Bay Area tech jobs to run a remote web design agency while traveling full-time. When they finally settled in Portugal in 2020, they slammed into the same wall every foreigner hits: getting a NIF, the Portuguese tax ID required for everything from opening a bank account to signing a lease.

As with most bureaucratic processes, getting this done was confusing.

Moreover, it required a local tax representative, and came with real legal liability. Most expats navigated it through Facebook groups and crossed fingers. 

In true entrepreneurial fashion, the Lo’s recognized this headache as an opportunity.

They partnered with a local law firm, built a simple intake system, and launched Bordr: the service they wished they'd had. 

It was a clever business. Orders came through Paperform, payments through Stripe, tracking through Airtable, emails through Postmark. Communication with the law firm happened over email and spreadsheets.

Within months, Bordr became a six-figure business. Clearly, they were moving in the right direction.

It also nearly buried them.

Every new order meant more manual work: updating statuses, sending emails, generating documents, chasing the law firm for updates. They had built a service people loved, and that service was consuming every hour they had. They’d fallen into the classic founder trap of building a really demanding job, rather than a business.

Here's where most entrepreneurs would start interviewing operations hires. That wouldn’t be wrong, but it would be trading the “doing it” tasks for “managing people who are doing it” tasks.

Instead, the Lo’s decided to invest. 

They stopped taking on new work for a few days and sat down to build the system that would run the business without them.

Using n8n — a workflow automation tool (that I love) — they wired their entire operation together. New orders:

A nine-step workflow delivered final NIF documents to customers without the Lo’s touching it.

The backend they built handles intake, communication, document generation, and delivery. It runs whether they're at their desks, asleep, or out enjoying the Portuguese sun.

Within five years, Bordr has earned a 4.9/5 rating on Trustpilot, from over 2,100 reviews. That kind of volume and service quality would require a dedicated operations team under the old system. Instead, it runs on workflows they designed once and refined over time.

Like I said, I love n8n. But the tool isn't the point.

The point is the decision they made: pause the income-generating work to build the infrastructure that would multiply it. Gain leverage by working on the business.

The Lo's story is inspiring, but it skips over the most difficult question… Where do you even start?

We know we should be automating things — the AI bros on LinkedIn don’t let us forget it. But everything feels urgent, and building systems feels like a tomorrow task. So tomorrow never comes.

Here's a simple framework I’ve come up with to identify what's worth automating. Since I can’t help a pithy naming opportunity, I’ve decided to call it the 3F Audit. 

Open a note and write down every task you do more than once a week. Include the tiny stuff: sending invoices, updating spreadsheets, copying data between tools, following up with clients, posting to social media.

Aim for at least 15 items. I created a spreadsheet to expedite the next step.

For each task, rate it 1 to 5 on:

Multiply the three scores together. This gives you a leverage score between 1 and 125.

Rank your tasks by leverage score. The top three are your highest-value automation candidates.

Pick one. Just one.

Resist the urge to overhaul everything at once. The Lo's didn't automate Bordr in a weekend. Things will take more time (and frustration) than you anticipate. 

Creating workflow automations is a new skill, so go into this with a student mindset. Difficult while it’s new, but easier over time.

Put it on your calendar. Treat it like a client meeting you can't reschedule.

Use that time to map out the task (in excruciating detail): what triggers it, what steps are involved, what tools you're already using. You don't have to build the automation in those two hours. You just have to see it clearly.

It helps me to imagine I’m about to hand it off to a contractor who can’t ask me questions.

Once you see it laid out, you'll find a way to fix it. Whether that's n8n, Zapier, Make, or a simple template you copy-paste.

The 3F Audit isn't about finding the “perfect” thing to automate. It's about training yourself to see your work differently, and starting to build time leverage in your business.

Every repetitive task represents a choice. You can keep the job of doing it forever, or you can invest a few hours now to never do it again.

The Lo's made that choice. So did I, when I finally automated that workflow I'd been tolerating for months.

Your turn.