WRITTEN BY Logan Romjue
Dialogue EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST

As a total productivity nerd, I’ve tried many different applications to speed up my workflow and day-to-day task management, both at work and at home. I use a mix of Todoist, Spark (email), Google Calendar, and Slack. After constantly jumping back and forth between all of these applications, I decided to look into a way to make them work together more efficiently. After researching different websites, I decided to try out Zapier, an app automation and integration tool. 


Zapier allows you to automate repetitive tasks by linking two separate apps/websites that may not have originally been programmed to work together. Zapier uses basic coding fundamentals of “If this, then that.” For example, if I star an email in Gmail, then it gets added as a task to a specific Todoist project. Zapier is extremely powerful because it integrates thousands of applications. You can create Zaps (the name for the workflow) as simple as one step, or much more complicated ones depending on your level of expertise and interest in setting it up.

Zaps

Zaps are comprised of a trigger (the event that starts a Zap) and an action (an event a Zap performs). Here’s an example of a Zap workflow that connects Facebook, Gmail, and Slack.

The trigger is a customer contacting the business through Facebook. This then prompts a thank you email sent to the customer, plus a Slack message sent to a specific channel related to the message. A workflow like this will save time for employees who, without the Zap, would have to manually email anyone who contacted them on Facebook, as well as notify the Slack channel. 

Here at Boom Box we mainly use Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. The Zaps that I currently have set up are:

  • Add new saved Slack messages to my Todoist as tasks

  • Add new Google Tasks to my Todoist as tasks


These Zaps save me time every day, since I’m constantly tagged in things on Slack that require me to download, upload, or edit something. Being able to quickly press the save button in Slack and have it show up in Todoist less than 5 seconds later keeps me really organized. This way, instead of switching between the apps, I can stay in Todoist and organize my day.

Here’s an example of how to get started with Zapier. We’re going to use the following Zap:

First, we choose the event. For this one, it will be when a new message is saved.

Zapier will then prompt you to log in to your account and will send a test message to make sure it’s working.

Next, connect your Todoist account and choose the event that will happen within Todoist. For this example, it will be to create a task.

Next, you log in to your account, and then you can set up what the task will look like when it lands in Todoist. There’s a lot of data going on here, so don’t get overwhelmed by all the small details. Look at each field one by one to asses the information that you need to see.

Here’s what’s most important:

  • Project: Assign this to whatever project/folder you want in Todoist.

  • Title: Instead of the exact text from Slack, I have this set to always say “New Task from Slack”

  • Note: Here I have the actual Slack message followed by the channel name. This way, whenever I go to Todoist I click on the task, asses it, and rename it. For example, I would have renamed this task “HOI 113 ready to download.” 

Labels: I have this set to a tag of @slack, so I can see that it’s been imported.

Zapier will then test the action to make sure it links properly, and then send it on its way. Congrats! Your Zap is now set up.

In Todoist the task ends up looking like this:

The expanded view shows the original Slack message. I would then rename this task “[Series Name] [episode number] pic ready to download” and assign it a due date and priority.

Some other interesting Zaps could be:

  • Get Slack notifications for new Google Drive files in a folder

  • Save new Gmail attachments to Google Drive

  • Add new Google Calendar events to Todoist as tasks

  • Create Google Calendar events from new Toggl time entries

  • Add new starred emails to Todoist as tasks

  • Share Google Forms responses in a Slack channel

Zapier also has a really easy to use website, where you can see common Zaps for specific apps to get started. Go check it out and see if there are any areas in your life where you can automate recurring tasks! Get creative, and don’t be afraid to play around with Zapier. It can be extremely powerful if you take the time to learn it!

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