How to Automate Repetitive Tasks in Windows

If you are an employee or a heavy user of your computer then you know that there are many repetitive tasks that needs to be performed everyday but at irregular times and so you can not set up a schedule. There are some tasks like replying to mails, adding signatures where required, opening a file to edit specific lines, cleaning up the folders and arranging files, etc. that cannot be scheduled so they have to be performed by hand and it takes a lot of time unnecessary.

This time, wasted counts and you become less productive, more stressed and more of a mechanical nature than required. That is useless and can show adverse effects on your professional as well as personal life. Though this sentence looks as if it has been over emphasized, but if you minutely check that then you will come to know what this sentence means.

According to an survey conducted by Salary.com, people waste about 12.5% out of 8 hours a day doing such tasks. That is a lot of time and that could have been invested in to creative or at least useful tasks. You are here because you worry about this time and want to find a solution to it. The good news is that you have a solution for it. And the Solution is Auto Hot Key.

AutoHotKey is an Open Source Initiative to use Computer Instead of a human to do those repetitive tasks. The link for the site is: http://www.autohotkey.com/. Just download and install it. Check the following steps out and see the boost in your productivity.

The first time you run it, It will ask you to create a autohotkey.ahk file in your My Documents Folder and ask you whether you want to open it or not. Just click yes. Now check that file and locate this line

#z::Run www.autohotkey.com

This line when executed will take you to the official site of AutoHotKey.

Now just copy and paste the following code into it and check the miracle happen

#!z::
Send Thank you very much {Enter} Take Care {Enter} John

Save the file and double click that file to load AutoHotKey. Now just open up notepad and Press Win+Alt+Z.

You just typed 28 characters by pressing just a pressing a hot key. So now you should know the power of AutoHotKey.

If you like to learn or get the user generated scripts directly feel free to check their wiki out. It is available at: http://www.autohotkey.com/wiki/index.php?title=Script_Listing

Once you start using AutoHotKey, you will never want to leave it. Just give it a try and check for yourself!