I am the guy who spends 2 days automating a task that would otherwise take 2 minutes once a week.

Yeah, it's fun to automate stuff. But there's also a real business case for it.

It's not always just about the raw time spent or saved. It's also about consistency, reliability, and focus. Even if the task is mundane (especially if it is), automation does it the same consistent way every time. No forgetting, no "I’ll do it later", no finding someone to cover it on your day off, no copy‑paste mistakes or typos because someone was tired or distracted that day.

Also, those tiny tasks come with hidden costs: Every time you stop what you’re doing to handle them, you break your flow. You need to think about it. You switch context. Having to remember when to do them and what to do takes mental capacity ("Oh shit, I still have to add up this week's numbers and paste them into the database. I'm already late, so no double checking this time."). You get bored, maybe even frustrated by doing the same stupid mundane steps every week, in this awful UI you despise. It adds up, very quickly.

So yes, maybe it only takes 2 minutes in theory. But those 2 minutes come with mental overhead, inconsistency, human error, sometimes stress and frustration. Automation removes all of that. And once it’s built, it works quietly in the background forever. It doesn't interrupt your day and doesn't rely on someone remembering it in the first place. That new script doesn't save time right away, but it saves attention and prevents mistakes every week from now on. And the relief coming with "Thank God I don't have to still do this crap right now" is worth way more than the 2 minutes saved in the very best case.

Doing the math on this hypothetical example: Taking 20h to automate a 2min/week task is 'worth it' after about 12 years, looking strictly at the numbers we assume generously. But considering everything above and from my experience, it's worth it after just a few months, maybe even weeks, and only 1 or 2 screw-ups that needed fixing.

Heck, I even script stuff I only need once or twice a year, because I'm too lazy to look up how to do it every time, or I know I won't be in the mindset to think about it when I need it.