Your first automation (that won’t break your brain)

If you’ve avoided Zapier, Make, n8n, or any other low-code automation tool because it sounds intimidating, I get it.

But here’s the thing: It’s not that hard.

And more importantly, you don’t need to automate your whole life to see a difference.

At its core, Zapier (and every other low-code automation tool) works like a digital middleman. It watches one app for something to happen like a new form submission, a calendar booking, a paid invoice. Once that happens, it automatically tells another app what to do next.

You set this up by choosing a trigger (“when X happens…”) and one or more follow-up actions (“…do Y, Z, etc.”). You’re not coding anything; you’re just connecting apps using plain language rules.

Think of it like building a tiny assembly line for the admin tasks you already do manually: Zapier sees the first step, carries the info where it needs to go, and taps you on the shoulder only if something goes wrong.

Let’s walk through one tiny workflow without needing to write a single line of code.

Picture it, Sicily: You’re a service provider who uses a form on your site to collect new inquiries. Typeform, Tally, Google Form, etc.

Normally, your workflow looks like:

Doing small tasks repeatedly is a clear signal you need to automate it.

I’m going to show how you can do this in Zapier, but the basic principles remain the same regardless of the platform you’re using.

⚠ Before we start! You typically need to test each step to make sure it’s working. Note that in Zapier, testing a step ACTUALLY EXECUTES THE STEP. So if you know it’s working and don’t want a new task created every time you update a property in Zapier, just hit “skip test” if you need to.

OK, HERE WE GO.

When you start a new zap, it will give you a screen like this:

Trigger ➡️ New form submission.

Choose trigger and pick your form submission tool (in this case, Google Forms) and choose New Form Response. You’ll need to connect your account to Zapier, which lets it sync to whatever form you want! Just click “Sign in”.

Hit Continue then choose the form you want it to look for. Whenever someone submits that form, it will trigger future actions in this automation.

Choose Test or Find New Records. It will likely just create a test response, but you may need to submit the form once yourself to get sample data.

Action 1 ➡️ Create a new record in your CRM, Google Sheet, or Notion database with their details.

Click on the following action and choose the platform where you want it to add a contact (in this case, Notion) and connect your account. You’ll then be able to choose the database or area to create the new contact and map information from the form to the fields available in this platform.

In this instance, I’m mapping their name, email, and one of the other form questions.

When you click the + button next to each field, it will bring up a menu on the left where you can choose data from previous steps in the automation.

So in this instance, you can map the name, email, etc. submitted in the form to different fields in your CRM for this contact.

Once I’m done mapping things, the fields look like this:

Hit Continue → TEST STEP. This will create the new record in your CRM - check it out to make sure it’s doing what you want it to do! Zapier will tell you if it hits an error or if something isn’t set up correctly.

Action 2 ➡️ Create a follow-up task in your task manager for 24 hours later.

Choose your task management platform (in this case, Notion again!) and create a new task.

Note: This is where it gets fun. You can add additional, custom information here, not only information submitted in the form.

For instance, something simple like naming the task Follow up with Name Field or choosing a specific template to use with this task.

Optional Action 3 ➡️ Add a dynamic due date for the task (or any other follow-ups you want to add!)

Unfortunately in Zapier you can’t just type “tomorrow” into a date field and have it know wtf you’re talking about.

So you need to add a Formatter step where the Action / Event is Date/Time.

In the Input field in this step, you can use natural language like today, tomorrow, next Monday, etc.

Then in the To Format field, choose MMMM DD YYYY so it just gives you the date.

You can then select the output of this field in later actions to create a new task.

The finished step settings look like this:

Once you’re happy with the flow, click Publish!

That’s it.

If you’ve ever followed a recipe, you can make a Zap.

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