Automator can do lots of little things that help. For example, I've created a text file called To-Do (it's purpose is obvious). I can append text to this using Quicksilver by hitting F2, so it's great for anything that pops into my head during the day. In Automator I created a little workflow that I linked to iCal. This opens my To-Do file at 9.25am every day, thus reminding what's in there.
I sell a guide I wrote on eBay. Every time I receive an email telling me someone's bought one, I simply copy their address and instigate a workflow. The workflow creates two new email messages; the first already contains text - "Thanks for buying the guide, I'll send it along in a separate message in a few moments. If it doesn't arrive please let me know." The second contains similar text, but has the guide attached. I just paste the buyer's email address and hit send.
Boom.
I do writing work for a company in London. When I've finished a report I instigate a workflow that creates a new email message with the file attached and moves that file to an archives folder. I then hit send, and it's gone.
Boom.
When I want to send an invoice I instigate the "Send latest invoice" workflow, which pulls the file with the most recent date from my Invoices folder and attaches it to an email addressed to the person in question. I just hit send and...
boom.
Before I had my firewire backup drive I created one that archived all my email once a month. (This is available from automatorworld.com.)
Most of these are email related, but that's just because that's where I do most of my dragging, dropping, file selections, etc.
Think about what you want to do, and work out if it can be done in Automator. It's not perfect – ie, I'd love to be able to move downloaded files from a specified contact to a specific folder automatically without even having to implement a workflow – but even in its current form it can save a lot of time.
