How To Use Zapier To Maximize Productivity & Efficiency

7 min readDec 28, 2020

Hello! My name is Christopher Ragland. Thank you for checking out the landing page for the project I am putting together this month. In a nutshell, I am going to be showing you how Zapier can maximize productivity and efficiency for your business.

For those who are not familiar with Zapier, Zapier allows you to integrate web applications that you use. You can use Zapier to automate workflows between multiple different computer applications.

I am going to show you five Zaps that are great for your business, and five Zaps that are great for you to use outside of work (but also inside).

If you’re in the right place, and even if you are not, then all I have to say is welcome and enjoy!

Why Zapier?

One thing is for sure, and that is the fact that the rate of change in the business world is increasing at an exponential rate. Everything is moving and changing faster than ever before, and if you are not equipped to adapt to those changes, then your business may be left behind.

Do you have any tedious tasks that you just don’t have time for? Is it possible that you are not maximizing efficiency because you don’t have as much time as you need to focus on your most important work? Maybe you need to add important events and/or tasks to your to-do list or notify your team about important messages. Maybe you need to gather feedback from your customers. This is where Zapier can come in and solve those pain points for you.

In terms of using Zapier for personal use, I believe having Zaps automate tasks for you can help clear your head and reduce stress.

Do you ever worry if you have missed an important email with an event invitation or reminder? Do you need something to help you add tasks to your to-do lists? If you are like me, you might think during the day about things outside of work, and that can be distracting. Zapier can help to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks, and you can work with a clear head.

Check out the blog posts and videos that I have included below that showcase and explain the various Zaps that can be used to maximize productivity and efficiency for you and your business.

Weekly Progress Updates

I created a series of tutorial videos to show how you can maximize productivity and efficiency in your business:

I wrote two blog posts to summarize the first five Zaps and the remaining five Zaps:

What I Learned After Four Weeks

There are a few key takeaways that I would like to share from these last four weeks, and those include the following: documentation of your work is extremely important, have a strategy to avoid and/or deal with burnout, and make sure that you have a community of people to support you along the way.

At this point, I could tell anyone that I am familiar with Zapier on some level, but without documentation of my research, I would have nothing to show for it. I found this month that documenting your work and progress along the way (as shown above) is important so that I am not just telling, but showing what I have done and what I can do.

At the beginning of a major work assignment or project, it’s important to have a strategy in place to help you avoid burnout. At the beginning of this month, I broke down my project into pieces and organized all of those pieces into my task management system.

Also, I set aside a specific time each day of the week in my Google Calendar to focus on my project. Outside of those two things, I made sure to have an open channel of communication with my advisors so that I could inform them on progress and ask for any specific feedback I needed.

I wrote a blog post to explain each of these more in-depth and share what I found most useful in this project. You can read that post here.

How I Grew

When you set out to accomplish and task or goal, there’s no doubt that you have to be disciplined from the start. You have to give that goal everything you’ve got.

Over these last four weeks, I have become a lot more disciplined. There are a lot of distractions vying for our attention, and you have to be ready to confront those for the sake of your work and the goals that you have set out to accomplish.

Each week, I set aside a few hours per day to work on this project, and I succeeded in sticking to that time every single day of the month. Also, I put a few items from my to-do list in the description of each event that I created on my Google Calendar so I knew what I would be working on during that specific time. I learned how to be organized and productive.

Another area that I grew in is not being afraid to show my work to the world. Documentation of your work is great, but you have to let other people see it. I posted updates of my weekly progress and all of my blog posts on LinkedIn.

What I Would Have Told Myself Four Weeks Ago

As I sit here and think about what I would have told myself four weeks ago, a recurring thought comes to mind. I would have told myself it’s not going to be easy. It’s not meant to be.

If I wasn’t being challenged by the race in front of me, then I would know that I have made it to be too easy. This project was meant to be a challenge. It was meant to be hard, and I grew in so many ways because of it.

Also, I would have told myself to make sure I take advantage of the community and advisors that are available to help me. As much as we try to do things on our own, there simply are certain aspects of our work we may not be able to see needs adjusted. I have been blessed by an amazing team this past month, and I am extremely grateful.

To Summarize

I learned a lot this month. I learned a lot about how to use Zapier to maximize productivity. Also, I learned a great deal about how to breakdown and organize a project and manage my time effectively.

If you are looking for a way to maximize productivity and efficiency within your team and/or business, then Zapier is the key. In a world that is changing constantly and overflowing with competition, there is no time to spare for tedious tasks that will waste time.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how you could use Zapier. There are 2,000+ integrations that you could be using for your business. You don’t have to wait any longer. Explore what you can do with Zapier today!

If you would like to connect, then you can reach me via email (christopheraragland@gmail.com) or on LinkedIn.

Thank you for stopping by!