Word automation raises the eyebrows of project managers, and they think, do I need to learn coding and scripting too? You can do much without coding or scripting by efficiently using tools and organizing yourself.
Understand Automation as a mechanism to help you utilize your time on more meaningful tasks than mundane, repetitive, manual ones. Start with small changes, and you will see the benefits. You get more efficient; productivity increases, which leads to better time management and helps you to focus more on priorities benefitting in creating business value.
Tools are your best friends in effective working. Here tools are more in terms of software tools or applications or programs. Use the tools efficiently; use their features to the fullest, be creative, and see how you can automate the workflows, and correlate and integrate the inputs and output of different tools to get better outcomes.
You can only know some tools or use their features. Start by listing the problem you are trying to solve for yourself or that repetitive, mundane task you want somebody else to do. Then explore how the different features of the existing tools can help you do that. It could be one tool, or you may need the help of two tools to achieve the objective. These days almost all applications expose APIs (interfaces) that enable you to integrate them efficiently, taking help from admins or support teams.
Let me help a little by talking about the most used tools like Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, Teams), Microsoft Project, Forms, SharePoint, Google Apps (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Scripts), tools like JIRA, Asana, Smartsheet, etc. These are a subset, majorly coming from my experience, but there could be other good tools that your organization has. Remember, multiple open-source tools also give you a lot of functionality, but that is a topic for some other time.
Microsoft Word + Excel work very well together, and their merge feature can be used in multiple ways. You can send customized or personalized letters, emails, and memos to various people.
Microsoft Forms + Excel or Google Forms + Sheets are a good combination for personalized surveys, questionnaires, and taking online inputs.
Microsoft Excel + Outlook or Google Sheets + Gmail integration can help send multiple emails to different recipients without manually composing them individually.
Microsoft Outlook + OneNote + Teams can be used together to generate and track yours To Do list, Minutes of Meetings, Keeping Notes, and Reminders.
Microsoft Outlook or Gmail has many features that can help you work faster and more efficiently. Optimize your work by creating your collection of email templates (the same or similar messages generally sent to different people) and save them as user-defined templates. Email scheduling is another helpful feature that can help in timely communication. Use the rules or filter options, customized views, notifications, flagging, and reminder options to track and manage your inbox efficiently.
Microsoft Excel is the most popular spreadsheet program with built-in features and intelligence for data analysis and forecasting. Significant features that get used are functions and formulas, pivot tables, graphs, importing and linking data from multiple sources, and interactive dashboards. I have tried to explain some of these features and functionalities with the use of scenarios and examples in my books "Data Analysis with Excel," edition 1, amazon.com -> reference link and "Advanced Analytics with Excel 2019", edition 1, amazon.com -> reference link. A lot of free online help is also available, and you can search and find the best match.
Similarly, Google Sheets has many good functionalities and allows you to use free Add-ons to enable a feature in your document. One excellent feature that I liked and used often is Publish to Web. You can publish an entire document or selected sheets, and any changes you make will automatically get reflected. It can be done from within the Google Sheets and requires no special linking.
Microsoft Project or Primavera PM Tool, or any other scheduling tool, be it JIRA, Asana, etc., all, when used efficiently, help in tracking and managing the projects.
All these tools also have their built-in templates library that can be very helpful in kickstarting your work and then can be customized as per requirement. Creating and managing your library will not only help you in doing work faster but also help you incorporate the learnings and generate high-quality artifacts.
The next important thing is Organizing Self, structuring, and streamlining your work for better time management. Again, you can use the tools; to create and manage your ToDo list, use the Viva Insights App or Insights Add-in of Outlook for setting your focus time or block some time of day in your calendar specifically for your work items or deliverables (separate from project-related meetings, etc.).
To streamline project-related activities, I found it helpful to set up individual calendars for different activities and recurring calendars for activities with defined frequency and follow them with discipline. Avoid planning anything in the time you have set aside for yourself so that you can focus. Doing things in parallel sounds like optimizing but sometimes working on one dedicated task yields better results. So, choose wisely.
Remember, saying 'No' or 'Not Now' is not a crime. It is very critical in management for your work and life both. To give a better perspective, let me give an example. Assuming you are between an activity and your senior or boss asks you to come for a discussion. It is only sometimes necessary to leave immediately and break your rhythm of work. Let the other person know that you are in the middle of some activity, and will it be ok if the said discussion could be done a little later? Based on the criticality and priority, take a call and plan.
Even if it is your boss, they might need to learn precisely how you have planned your daily activities. That is your schedule, so making them aware and re-align priorities if required is essential.
The Mantra is to manage your time, stay focused, and Automate to be better Organized.