Identify your top 3 automations

~10 min

Before building, identify the repetitive tasks that waste the most time.

1. List every manual, repetitive task you do weekly
2. Rank them by time spent and annoyance level
3. Pick the top 3 - start with the simplest one
4. Common high-impact automations: new lead → Slack notification, form submission → CRM entry, new blog post → social media share, invoice paid → Notion update

Build your first Make scenario

~20 min

Create a visual automation in Make that connects two or more tools.

1. Log in to Make and click "Create a new scenario"
2. Add a trigger module (e.g. "Watch new rows" in Google Sheets, or a Webhook)
3. Add an action module (e.g. "Send a message" in Slack)
4. Map the data fields: connect the trigger's output to the action's input
5. Click "Run once" to test with real data
6. Turn on the scenario and set the schedule (every 15 min, hourly, instant)

Sync data to Notion automatically

~20 min

Create an automation that syncs data from other tools into a Notion database.

1. Create a Notion database for the data you want to track (e.g. "Leads", "Content Calendar", "Invoices")
2. In Make, add a Notion module: "Create a database item"
3. Connect your Notion account and select your database
4. Map fields from your trigger to Notion properties
5. Add filters or routers if you only want certain items synced
6. Test and activate

Set up n8n for self-hosted automations

~20 min

For builders who want full control, set up n8n as a self-hosted alternative to Make.

1. The fastest way to try n8n: npx n8n (runs locally)
2. Open http://localhost:5678 in your browser
3. Create your first workflow: same concept as Make, but self-hosted
4. For production: deploy n8n on Railway or your own server
5. n8n is free and open source - no operation limits

# Run n8n locally (no install needed)
npx n8n

# Or with Docker
docker run -it --rm --name n8n -p 5678:5678 n8nio/n8n

Add error handling and monitoring

~15 min

Make your automations robust with error handlers and notifications.

1. Add an error handler to each scenario (right-click a module → Add error handler)
2. Set up "Break" error handling to retry failed operations
3. Add a final Slack notification module for when errors occur
4. Enable scenario notifications in Make settings
5. Check your execution history weekly to catch silent failures