You've heard automation can save hours of work, but where do you actually start? This guide walks you through building your first automation—no coding required. By the end, you'll have a working automation that saves you real time every week.
📋 Table of Contents
How to Choose Your First Automation?
The best first automation is:
- Repetitive: Something you do at least weekly (ideally daily)
- Simple: 3-5 steps, no complex decision-making
- Low-risk: Mistakes won't cause major problems
- Digital: Involves apps/tools you already use
💡 Great First Automations
- Save email attachments to cloud storage automatically
- Get Slack/Teams notifications when forms are submitted
- Add new contacts from emails to your CRM
- Create calendar events from new leads
- Generate weekly reports from spreadsheet data
For this tutorial, we'll build: "Automatically save email attachments to Google Drive and notify me on Slack"
| Criterion | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency | At least weekly | 10 emails/week with attachments |
| Complexity | 3-5 steps | Receive → Save → Notify |
| Risk | Low | No critical financial data |
| ROI | High | 25+ minutes/week saved |
How to Map the Manual Process?
1 Map Your Process
Before touching any tool, write down exactly what happens manually:
- Trigger: I receive an email with an attachment
- Action 1: I download the attachment
- Action 2: I save it to a specific Drive folder
- Action 3: I message my team that the file is ready
Time spent manually: 2-3 minutes per email × 10 emails/week = 25+ minutes/week
Your Turn
Write down your process in simple steps. Who sends the trigger? What apps are involved? What's the final output?
Which Automation Tool to Choose?
2 Choose Your Tool
For beginners, use a no-code automation platform:
Zapier (easiest) Make.com (more powerful) Power Automate (Microsoft users) n8n (free, self-hosted)
For this tutorial, we'll use Zapier because it has the gentlest learning curve. Free tier allows 5 automations ("Zaps").
Action Required
Sign up for a free Zapier account at zapier.com
| Tool | Difficulty | Free Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | ⭐ Easy | 5 Zaps | Absolute beginners |
| Make.com | ⭐⭐ Medium | 1,000 operations/month | Complex workflows |
| Power Automate | ⭐⭐ Medium | 750 runs/month | Microsoft ecosystem |
| n8n | ⭐⭐⭐ Advanced | Unlimited (self-hosted) | Full control |
How to Set Up the Trigger?
3 Set Up Your Trigger
The trigger is the event that starts your automation.
- Click "Create Zap" in Zapier
- Search for "Gmail" (or your email provider)
- Select trigger: "New Attachment"
- Connect your Gmail account (one-time authorization)
- Configure: Which label/folder to watch? Any sender filters?
- Test the trigger—Zapier will pull a recent email as sample data
Pro Tip
Use email filters/labels to target specific senders. This prevents the automation from processing every attachment you receive.
How to Add Actions?
4 Add Your Actions
Action 1: Save to Google Drive
- Click "+" to add action
- Search for "Google Drive"
- Select action: "Upload File"
- Connect your Google account
- Configure: Select folder, filename (use variables like sender name + date)
Action 2: Send Slack Notification
- Click "+" to add another action
- Search for "Slack"
- Select action: "Send Channel Message"
- Connect Slack
- Configure: Select channel, write message (include file link from previous step)
How to Test the Automation?
5 Test Your Automation
Before going live, test with real data:
- Click "Test" on each step
- Verify the file appears in your Drive folder
- Check that the Slack message looks correct
- Fix any issues (wrong folder, missing data, etc.)
Common Issues
- "No data found": Send yourself a test email with an attachment
- Wrong file name: Check your variable mapping
- Missing link in Slack: Use the "Web View Link" output from Drive
How to Turn On the Automation?
6 Turn It On
Once testing passes:
- Review your complete workflow
- Toggle the Zap to "On"
- Send yourself a test email to confirm it works in production
- Set a reminder to check after 24 hours
🎉 Congratulations! You've built your first automation.
What You Just Saved
25+ minutes/week × 50 weeks = 20+ hours/year
From a 30-minute setup. That's a 40x return on your time.
What Are the Next Steps?
Now that you understand the basics, try these progressively harder challenges:
- Add conditions: Only save PDFs, ignore other file types
- Chain automations: After saving, add a row to a tracking spreadsheet
- Handle errors: Get notified if the automation fails
- Multi-step workflows: Automate your entire document intake process
⚡ Ready to Go Beyond Basics?
Mastered simple automation? We handle the complex stuff—AI, document processing, custom integrations—and we do it fast. Most projects: 2-4 weeks, from €3,000. Tell us what you need, get a quote tomorrow.
Get Free Quote →Key Takeaways
- Start simple: Your first automation should be 3-5 steps max
- Map before building: Write down the manual process first
- Use no-code tools: Zapier, Make, or Power Automate—no coding needed
- Always test: Verify each step before going live
- Think ROI: Even 25 minutes/week adds up to 20+ hours/year
Last updated: January 27, 2025
Source: European Commission - AI Strategy | AGID - National AI Strategy