How much of your week could a do-bot take?

Most analytical weeks hold a repeatable core: the quarterly report, the monthly refresh, the table someone asks for every Tuesday. Some of it an agent could take over safely. Some of it should stay in human hands. Some of it could stop.

Pick one piece of recurring work and answer for that, as it actually runs rather than how it should. The questions are about the work, not how keen you are on AI. Nothing is recorded until you send it.

1. Q1Are the steps of this work written down anywhere?

   No. I know them, and I do them.Partly: some notes, a checklist, an old email.Yes, a step-by-step guide someone else could follow.Yes, and the scripts are the guide.
2. Q2How much of it is copying and pasting between tools?

   A lot. Extract to spreadsheet to chart to document, by hand.Some. A few pastes between parts that are otherwise scripted.Little. Scripts pass the data along; I paste the final figures.None. Data goes from source to output without passing through my hands.
3. Q3You are off sick on the day. Could someone else run it?

   Not really. They would ring me.With my notes and a free afternoon.Yes, by following the guide, though more slowly.Yes. They run one command and check the result.
4. Q4How are the tables and charts in the final output made?

   By hand, in a spreadsheet or in the document itself.Partly by code, then finished off by hand.By code. I paste them into the template.By code, straight into the finished document.
5. Q5Where do the human checks sit?

   Everywhere. I check things by eye as I go.At the end. Someone reads the draft before it goes out.At a few known points, with a list of what to look for.At each hand-over, with automated checks.
6. Q6Which steps would nobody miss if they stopped?

   I have never had the time to ask.I suspect some, but nobody has checked.I know a few. We keep them out of habit.We review now and then, and have dropped steps nobody used.
7. Q7Is there a picture of the whole workflow, start to finish?

   No. It lives in my head.A rough sketch, somewhere.A diagram, kept more or less up to date.Yes, drawn from the code, so it cannot go stale.
8. Q8An agent takes one step tomorrow. How would you check its work?

   I would redo the step myself and compare.I would read its output closely, line by line.I would compare it with the last run's output.The checks already at that hand-over would catch it.

The button opens an email to us, copied to Rabbie, our robot, who keeps the diary. Your result travels in it so we can prepare. You can change or delete it before you send, and nothing leaves your browser until you do.

Conventions Codified is where we map a workflow like yours and mark what to automate, what to keep and what to stop, and Roboduck is the half-minute film version.

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