Before You Build: Picking Your First Workflow
The best workflow to build is the one that solves a real problem you have right now. Not something you think you "should" automate. Something that genuinely wastes your time today.
I built my first workflow because I was manually copying email inquiries into a spreadsheet three times a day. It took 10 minutes each time. Building email-to-Airtable saved me 30 minutes a day—that's 10 hours a month just from one simple scenario.
As you read through these ideas, ask yourself: which one would save me the most time this month? Start there.
Communications: Connecting Your Tools
Trigger: Gmail (new email)
Modules: Gmail trigger → Slack send message
Why build it: You're waiting for an important email. Instead of checking your inbox constantly, Make sends you a Slack message the moment it arrives. Add a filter (only emails from specific people) to avoid spam notifications.
Operations: ~1 per email. Monthly cost: Negligible (100-200 per month if you get 100-200 important emails).
Trigger: Webhook (from your website form)
Modules: Webhook → Airtable create record
Why build it: Every time someone fills out a contact form on your website, automatically add them to your CRM. No manual data entry. Add a "date submitted" field automatically for tracking.
Operations: ~1 per submission. Monthly cost: Depends on form traffic. 50 submissions = 50 operations.
Trigger: Slack (reaction to message)
Modules: Slack trigger → Todoist (or Notion) create task
Why build it: You see a Slack message about something you should follow up on. React with a bookmark emoji. Make automatically adds it to your task list. Zero friction.
Operations: ~2 per reaction. Monthly cost: Depends on how often you use this.
Content: Publishing and Distribution
Trigger: Schedule (daily)
Modules: RSS module → Airtable create records (batch)
Why build it: You follow 5-10 blogs. Every morning, Make grabs the latest posts and adds them to an Airtable "reading list." You have curated content ready to skim with morning coffee.
Operations: ~5-20 per day depending on feed volume. Monthly cost: ~150-600 operations.
Trigger: Webhook (from your blog publishing platform)
Modules: Webhook → Twitter post → LinkedIn post
Why build it: You publish a blog post. Make automatically shares it to Twitter and LinkedIn with a standard message like "New blog: [Title]. Read more: [Link]" you can customize.
Operations: ~2-3 per publish. Monthly cost: Negligible if you post weekly (8-12 per month).
Trigger: Webhook (from newsletter form)
Modules: Webhook → Airtable create record
Why build it: Someone subscribes to your newsletter on your website. Instead of manually adding them to your email list, Make does it. Add email validation to prevent bad data.
Operations: ~1 per signup. Monthly cost: Depends on subscribers. 100 subscribers = 100 operations.
Business: Operations and Admin
Trigger: Email (invoice attachment)
Modules: Gmail → Google Sheets append row
Why build it: You get invoices via email. Make extracts the amount, vendor, and date, then adds them to a Google Sheet for expense tracking. You get a running log without any effort.
Operations: ~2-3 per invoice. Monthly cost: Depends on invoice frequency. 10 invoices = 20-30 operations.
Trigger: Email (meeting notes)
Modules: Gmail → OpenAI extract action items → Airtable create tasks
Why build it: You email yourself meeting notes. Make sends them to OpenAI to extract action items ("call client by Friday", "create proposal"), then adds each one as a task. Action items are captured automatically.
Operations: ~3-5 per meeting. Monthly cost: 2-3 meetings weekly = 24-60 per month.
Personal: Life Organization
Trigger: Schedule (daily)
Modules: Schedule → Airtable search → Email send
Why build it: You have a spreadsheet of birthdays. Every morning, Make checks if anyone has a birthday today and sends you an email reminder. Never forget someone's birthday again.
Operations: ~3-5 per day. Monthly cost: ~100-150.
Trigger: Schedule (weekly, Sunday 8pm)
Modules: Schedule → Google Sheets fetch → Email compose & send
Why build it: Every Sunday, Make grabs your week's data (tasks completed, articles read, projects updated) and sends you a summary email. Reflection becomes automatic.
Operations: ~3-5 per week. Monthly cost: ~12-20.
Picking Your First Workflow to Build
Here's my advice: start with something in the "Communications" category. They're the simplest (usually 2-3 modules) and have immediate, visible payoff. You build it Saturday morning, test it, activate it, and by Monday you're seeing it work.
My recommendation: build idea #1 (Email to Slack) or idea #2 (Contact Form to CRM). Both are under 10 minutes to build and solve real problems immediately.
Then, if you enjoy it and the concept clicks, move to a "Content" or "Business" workflow. These are slightly more complex (3-4 modules) but still entirely doable.
Next Steps After Your First Build
Test it thoroughly. Use "Run Once" with real data. Make sure the output looks right before activating.
Document it. Write one sentence in the scenario description explaining what it does.
Activate and monitor. Turn it on. Check the execution log over the next week. Are errors occurring? Is operation count as expected?
Iterate. Once it's running smoothly, think about what could be better. Can you add error handling? Can you format the output nicer? Small improvements compound.
Build your second workflow. Pick an idea from this list that solves your second-biggest time sink. Each workflow you build teaches you something new.
By your third or fourth workflow, you'll understand the platform deeply. The "hard" part isn't the technical skill—it's thinking clearly about what problems to solve. Pick your problems wisely, and the rest follows naturally.