Top 13 'Ten-Hour-Time-Back' Automation Tools to try for overworked founders to reclaim their weekends in 2025 - Goh Ling Yong
Remember that feeling of launching your startup? The adrenaline, the passion, the unshakeable belief that you could change the world. Now, fast forward to today. Does your world mostly consist of your laptop screen, a mountain of admin tasks, and the heartbreaking realization that Saturday feels just like Tuesday? You're not alone. The "hustle culture" sold us a dream but often delivered a reality of burnout, where the founder becomes the single biggest bottleneck to growth.
The good news is, it doesn't have to be this way. The secret weapon of highly effective, and well-rested, founders isn't a magical ability to bend time; it's a strategic embrace of automation. We're not talking about complex, enterprise-level systems that require a team of engineers. We're talking about smart, accessible tools that can genuinely give you back 10, 15, or even 20 hours a week. Think of it as your 'Ten-Hour-Time-Back' fund—an investment that pays dividends in reclaimed weekends, strategic thinking time, and a business that runs for you, not because of you.
Ready to stop being the Chief Everything Officer and start being the CEO again? Here are the top 13 automation tools you need to try in 2025 to finally reclaim your freedom and focus on what truly matters: scaling your vision.
1. Zapier: The Digital Duct Tape for Your Business
If you only try one tool on this list, make it Zapier. It's the undisputed king of integration, acting as a bridge between more than 7,000 different web apps. The concept is simple: "When this happens in App A, automatically do that in App B." It's a non-coder's dream, allowing you to create powerful automated workflows, or "Zaps," in minutes.
Imagine a new lead fills out a form on your website. Without Zapier, you might manually copy-paste their info into your CRM, add them to your email list, create a task for your sales team, and send a notification to a Slack channel. With Zapier, all of this happens instantly and flawlessly while you sleep. This isn't just about saving a few minutes; it's about eliminating the mental energy spent on repetitive tasks and ensuring no lead ever falls through the cracks.
- Pro Tip: Start small. Automate one simple, annoying task first. For example, automatically save all your email attachments to a specific Google Drive folder. Once you see the magic, you'll be hooked on finding more 'Zaps' to build.
2. Make (formerly Integromat): The Visual Workflow Powerhouse
While Zapier is brilliantly simple, Make is for the founder who wants more power and visual control. It presents your automations as a visual flowchart, making it incredibly intuitive to build complex, multi-step scenarios with branching logic (if/then paths) that Zapier's lower tiers don't offer. If you've ever thought, "I wish my workflow could do X, but only if Y is true," then Make is your answer.
For example, you could build a workflow where a new customer purchase triggers a series of actions: if the purchase is over $100, tag them as a 'VIP' in your CRM, send them a personalized thank-you email from Lemlist, and add a task in Asana for your account manager to follow up. If it's under $100, simply add them to a standard onboarding email sequence in Mailchimp. This level of conditional automation is where you start building a truly intelligent, self-running business.
- Pro Tip: Use Make’s visualizer to troubleshoot. Watching the data flow through your scenario in real-time is the best way to spot errors and understand exactly how your automation is working.
3. Jasper: Your AI Content Co-pilot
Content is king, but creating it can feel like a full-time job. Jasper (and other AI writers like it) is a game-changer for founders who need to produce high-quality content at scale. It can generate blog post drafts, social media captions, ad copy, product descriptions, and even video scripts based on a few simple prompts. It's not about replacing human creativity but about augmenting it.
Think of the hours spent staring at a blank page. Jasper can crush that writer's block by providing a solid first draft in seconds. You can then spend your valuable time refining, editing, and adding your unique brand voice and strategic insights. It’s the ultimate tool for turning a 4-hour writing task into a 45-minute editing session.
- Pro Tip: Use Jasper's "Brand Voice" feature. Feed it examples of your existing content (like your website's 'About Us' page or a popular blog post), and it will learn to write in your specific tone and style, drastically reducing your editing time.
4. Calendly: The Meeting Scheduler That Ends Email Tag
"When are you free?" is one of the most time-wasting phrases in business. The back-and-forth emails to schedule a single meeting can take days. Calendly solves this permanently. You set your availability rules, connect your calendar, and share a simple link. People can then book a time that works for them, and the event is automatically added to both of your calendars.
This tool is a non-negotiable for any founder. It streamlines sales calls, investor meetings, podcast interviews, and team check-ins. You can create different event types with different durations, add buffer times between meetings, and even integrate it with Zoom or Google Meet to auto-generate video call links. It's a simple tool that delivers an immediate and massive 'Time-Back' return.
- Pro Tip: Embed your Calendly link directly in your email signature. It’s a passive, professional way to let anyone who emails you know how to book time with you efficiently.
5. HubSpot Marketing Hub: The All-in-One Growth Engine
Many founders start with a patchwork of tools: one for email, one for landing pages, one for social media, and a spreadsheet for a CRM. HubSpot brings all of this under one roof. Its true power lies in its automation. You can build sophisticated email nurture sequences that are triggered by user behavior—like downloading an ebook or visiting your pricing page.
The platform provides a single view of your customer's journey. You can see every interaction a lead has had with your brand, from their first website visit to the last email they opened. This allows you to create deeply personalized and automated marketing campaigns that convert. As my colleague Goh Ling Yong often advises, a unified customer view is the foundation for scalable growth, and HubSpot delivers exactly that.
- Pro Tip: Use HubSpot’s lead scoring feature. Automatically assign points to leads based on their actions (e.g., +10 for visiting the pricing page, +5 for opening an email). This allows your sales team to instantly identify and focus on the hottest, most engaged leads.
6. Buffer: Your Social Media Sanity Saver
Maintaining a consistent social media presence is crucial for brand building, but it's a notorious time sink. Buffer allows you to schedule all your social media content for the week or month in a single session. Instead of getting distracted by context-switching every day, you can batch-create your content and let Buffer post it for you at optimal times.
This is a classic example of "working on your business, not in it." Dedicate two hours on a Monday morning to plan and schedule your entire week's worth of posts across LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. For the rest of the week, your social media runs on autopilot, freeing you up to engage with comments and focus on bigger strategic initiatives.
- Pro Tip: Use Buffer's content calendar view to spot gaps in your schedule and ensure a balanced mix of content types (e.g., promotional, educational, behind-the-scenes).
7. Dext (formerly Receipt Bank): The End of Shoebox Accounting
How many hours have you wasted manually entering receipt data, chasing down invoices, and preparing documents for your accountant? Dext automates this entire painful process. Simply snap a photo of a receipt with your phone, forward an email invoice, or connect it to your supplier accounts, and Dext's AI will extract all the key data and publish it directly to your accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks.
This is a pure 'Time-Back' tool that saves you from tedious, low-value admin. It ensures your books are always up-to-date, maximizes your claimable expenses, and makes tax time a breeze instead of a nightmare. This is the kind of automation that buys back your Sunday afternoons.
- Pro Tip: Set up an auto-forwarding rule in your email to send any email containing the word "invoice" or "receipt" directly to your unique Dext email address. You'll never have to think about it again.
8. Slack Workflows: Your Internal Operations Automator
You already use Slack for team communication, but are you using its built-in automation? The Workflow Builder is a surprisingly powerful, no-code tool that lets you automate routine processes directly within Slack. You can create automated daily stand-up reminders, build simple forms for bug reports or feature requests, and set up automated welcome messages for new team members.
For example, create a workflow triggered by an emoji reaction. When a team member posts a great customer win in a channel, anyone can add a 🎉 emoji, which automatically triggers a workflow that copies the message to a #wins channel and adds it to a Google Sheet for your next company-wide meeting. It’s about building a more efficient and connected internal operating system.
- Pro Tip: Create a
#request-helpchannel with a workflow. A team member can start the workflow, fill out a simple form detailing their problem, and it will automatically tag the right person or department, ensuring no request gets lost in the noise.
9. Notion (+ API): Your Centralized and Automated Brain
Notion is more than just a note-taking app; it's a flexible workspace where you can build your company's entire operating system—from project roadmaps and content calendars to CRMs and team wikis. The real magic happens when you connect it to other tools via its API (using Zapier or Make).
Imagine a world where a new row is automatically added to your 'New Hires' database in Notion every time a candidate signs an offer letter in DocuSign. Or where a new card is created on your 'Content Ideas' board every time a specific keyword is mentioned on Twitter. By automating the flow of information into your central knowledge base, you create a single source of truth that is always current, without manual effort.
- Pro Tip: Use Notion’s database templates for recurring projects. Create a master "New Project" template that includes all standard tasks, checklists, and document templates. When you start a new project, just duplicate the template, and your entire structure is built for you in one click.
10. Lemlist: Hyper-Personalized Sales Outreach at Scale
Cold outreach is a numbers game, but generic, robotic emails don't work. Lemlist solves this by allowing you to automate outreach while maintaining a high degree of personalization. You can use custom variables, personalized images, and even dynamic landing pages to make each email feel like it was written just for that one recipient.
You can build multi-step sequences that automatically follow up with prospects who haven't replied, and the campaign stops the moment they respond. This means your sales team (or you, in the early days) can focus their time on conversations with warm, engaged leads instead of manually tracking and sending follow-up emails.
- Pro Tip: Use the "custom image" feature to make your emails stand out. You can automatically add a prospect's company logo to a coffee cup image or their name to a whiteboard in a picture of you. It's a pattern interrupt that dramatically increases reply rates.
11. Xero / QuickBooks: Automated Financial Clarity
Modern cloud accounting software is a founder's best friend. These platforms do so much more than just bookkeeping. They automate invoicing with recurring payment reminders, connect directly to your bank accounts to categorize transactions, and generate real-time financial reports like your Profit & Loss and Cash Flow statements.
Stop spending hours in spreadsheets trying to figure out your financial position. With these tools, you can have a clear, up-to-the-minute dashboard of your business's financial health. This automation gives you the clarity to make better strategic decisions and frees up countless hours you'd otherwise spend on manual financial admin.
- Pro Tip: Set up "Bank Rules" in your accounting software. For example, create a rule that any transaction containing "Google Ads" is automatically categorized as "Advertising Expense." The more rules you create, the less manual reconciliation you have to do.
12. Trello (with Butler): The Simple, Automated Project Manager
For teams that love simplicity and visual organization, Trello is perfect. Its built-in automation engine, Butler, is where it truly shines for founders. You can create simple, natural language rules to automate actions on your boards.
For example, you can set a rule: "When a card is moved into the 'Done' list, mark the due date as complete and @mention me." Or, "Every Monday at 9 AM, create a card in the 'To-Do' list titled 'Review Weekly Metrics'." These small automations add up, keeping your projects moving forward, ensuring nothing is missed, and eliminating the need for a project manager to constantly nudge the team.
- Pro Tip: Create a "Card Button" for repetitive tasks. For instance, a "New Blog Post" button that, when clicked, automatically creates a checklist of all the standard steps (Draft, Edit, SEO Review, Schedule) and assigns it to the content manager.
13. Superhuman: Get Through Your Inbox in Record Time
Email is the biggest time-suck for most founders. Superhuman is an email client designed for one thing: speed. It rethinks the email experience with a keyboard-shortcut-first design, AI-powered triage, and features like snippets and scheduled sending. It helps you get to "inbox zero" not by just archiving things, but by processing them with ruthless efficiency.
The AI features can automatically identify and separate your most important emails from the noise. The "Split Inbox" feature lets you create different feeds for different types of mail (e.g., one for your team, one for investors). While it comes with a premium price tag, for a founder whose inbox is a constant source of stress and distraction, the hours it saves each week can provide an incredible ROI. Goh Ling Yong has always stressed that a founder's focus is their most finite resource, and Superhuman is a tool built to protect it.
- Pro Tip: Master five keyboard shortcuts to start. Just learning
Eto archive,Rto reply,Hto snooze,Cmd+Kto open the command palette, andCmd+Enterto send will fundamentally change the speed at which you process email.
Your Weekend is Waiting
Automation isn't about replacing the human element of your business. It's about elevating it. It's a strategic decision to delegate the mundane, repetitive, soul-crushing tasks to technology so that you—the visionary, the leader, the founder—can dedicate your precious time and energy to the work that only you can do.
Start with one. Pick the single biggest bottleneck or the most annoying task from your weekly routine and find a tool on this list that can solve it. The momentum you gain from reclaiming that first hour will inspire you to find the next, and the next. Before you know it, you'll have your 'Ten-Hour-Time-Back' fund, your weekends will be yours again, and you'll be running a business that's not just growing, but is also a joy to lead.
Now, I want to hear from you. Which of these tools are you most excited to try in 2025? Share your choice and your biggest time-wasting challenge in the comments below!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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