Todo Management Automation: 3 Steps with Make and Slack Integration

Automation Case Study: Automate Your Daily Todo Management

"Companies where checking tasks prevents actual work from getting done — you need to read this."

Many of you have probably experienced this.

When work piles up, you don't know what to tackle first, so you hastily deal with whatever's in front of you, or spend time hunting for missed tasks among the pile.

When urgent tasks keep stacking up, long-term projects inevitably get shelved.

Eventually, projects with poor task management end up being rushed at the last minute or abandoned entirely, sometimes leading to the worst-case scenario of customer churn.

But manually writing down and checking to-dos every single day, processing them, and repeating — isn't that the textbook example of putting the cart before the horse?

You end up creating work just to manage work — a bizarre phenomenon.

IMPAKERS was no exception.

"I thought, if IMPAKERS' project management continues like this, we're in real trouble."

We were simultaneously running anywhere from 5 to over 10 projects daily.

Running so many projects in parallel meant we frequently missed the Next Action for each project.

Every morning, we'd have to open each project one by one to check if to-dos had been added, review completed tasks — draining all our energy before the day even started.

Checking workflow status itself became a daily separate task.

The real worst part was that task checking was also done by humans, so mistakes and omissions occurred, slowing customer responses and causing customer churn.

For a small company like ours, this was devastating.

What Was Actually the Problem?

• Inefficiency of having to manually check what needs to happen next for each project
• The irony of needing todo management to manage todos
• Ultimately prolonging project timelines and leading to customer churn

We finally couldn't take it anymore and decided to implement automation.

Todo Management Automation: Implementing with MAKE and Slack

We built the following 3 automations by integrating 'Slack,' no-code automation platform 'MAKE,' and task management tool 'Airtable'.

• Auto-search for projects without Next Action (To-do) → Send Slack message requesting task addition
• Auto-check blog publication status → Send Slack message prompting unpublished blog publication
• Auto-detect overdue incomplete to-dos → Send Slack message prompting progress on incomplete tasks

Viewing the Entire Process via Make Scenarios

1. Auto-search for projects without Next Action (To-do) → Send Slack message requesting task addition

2. Auto-check blog publication status → Send Slack message prompting unpublished blog publication

3. Auto-detect overdue incomplete to-dos → Send Slack message prompting progress on incomplete tasks

Before 9:00 AM when work starts, we set up notifications in Slack so we can already see which projects have missing tasks (to-dos) and what's being delayed.

How the Work Environment Changed After Todo Management Automation

Previously, we had to set aside separate time to manually search and review project to-do statuses.

But now, all task checking happens at once in Slack as soon as we arrive at work.

Team members can immediately verify their tasks without missing anything.

The morning routine of separately checking tasks disappeared, and all team members could focus much more on their actual work.

From CS representatives to developers and designers, everyone can properly track their own tasks in real time, leading to higher quality work and significantly reduced customer churn from missed tasks.

Effort Savings in Numbers

Previously, 2 employees each spent at least 30 minutes daily checking and managing tasks. That's 1 hour per day, and based on 260 working days per year, a staggering 260 hours annually. Incredible, right? Even at minimum wage, this wasted task management cost amounts to approximately 2,607,800 KRW.

But using the MAKE platform, our annual cost is approximately 151,096 KRW, and Airtable is even free. In other words, the solution costs about 94.2% less than the previous investment. And beyond the cost savings, employees' invaluable time and energy are fully redirected to their core work.

Aiming for Work Without 'Work to Manage Work'

Is our task management method perhaps creating 'more tasks'?

Many companies adopt various work tools but end up spending too much energy and money on managing work itself.

Through automation, focusing only on missed tasks, with daily priorities clearly visible, employee stress dropped dramatically.

We can now focus more on our real work and take better care of our customers.

If your company has many missed tasks or loses energy constantly checking schedules, consider implementing automation.

The true value of automation goes beyond simply saving time or money.

Break free from the daily routine of checking and managing missed tasks

We hope every maker can immerse themselves in 'the work that truly needs to be done.'

IMPAKERS Blog | Here's another work automation case study! Read more