Which routines are actually worth automating?
Three conditions, all of them required. You do it daily. It happens at a fixed place. Your phone is already in your hand at that moment. Miss any one and the automation is quietly abandoned within a month, whatever it does.
The three conditions
Daily. An action performed weekly does not build a habit, and the tag is forgotten between uses.
Fixed place. A tag is an object in one location. An action that happens anywhere cannot be attached to it.
Phone in hand. If the phone is in a pocket at that moment, retrieving it costs more than the automation saves.
All three, together. Two out of three is the shape of every automation that gets built and abandoned.
What failing each one looks like
Not daily: the tag is still there in six months, unused, and you have forgotten what it does.
Not fixed: you find yourself walking to the tag, which is slower than doing the thing.
Phone not in hand: you do the action manually because getting the phone out is the expensive part.
Each failure looks like the technology disappointing, and each is a design decision made before anything was built.
Why clever ones fail
They are built first, because they are interesting.
They usually involve several steps, which multiplies the chances of one being wrong on a given day.
They often include a conditional step, and undoing one wrong action is slower than doing everything by hand.
And they solve a problem you noticed once rather than a friction you meet every day, which is the difference between an idea and a need.
The month test
Build one. Use it for a month. Then ask whether you would rebuild it on a new phone.
That question is the honest measure, because rebuilding is exactly what a phone change will demand and most people decline.
If the answer is yes, it earned its place. If no, remove the tag rather than leaving it on a wall to confuse you later.
And keep a note of what you removed and why, so the same idea does not get built twice.
Frequently asked questions
Why do most automations get abandoned?
They miss one of three conditions: daily, fixed place, phone already in hand. Two out of three is not enough.
Should I start with something impressive?
No. Impressive automations are built first and abandoned first. The boring daily one is the one that survives.
How do I know if it worked?
After a month, ask whether you would rebuild it on a new phone. That is what a phone change will actually demand.
What should I do with an unused tag?
Remove it. A tag on a wall doing nothing is a small confusion for everyone, including you in six months.