The Moment of Realization

My journey began a few years back when I felt buried under a mountain of tasks, email alerts, and unfinished projects. My workspace resembled a disaster zone, and my mind was no better off. One evening, after missing yet another deadline, I found myself searching for ways to improve my productivity.

That's when I stumbled upon Python. The articles I read promised automation, enhanced efficiency, and more leisure time. Skeptical but eager for change, I decided to give it a try. My first script was a basic one that helped me organize my tasks for the day. Although it wasn't perfect, it provided a much-needed sense of relief.

Script 1: Automating Daily Task Organization

Let's take a look at the initial script that made a difference. I often wasted a significant portion of my morning just determining what I needed to accomplish that day. Using Python, I developed a script that sorts my tasks by priority and presents me with a structured list:

tasks = [

{"task": "Email John about project", "priority": "high"},

{"task": "Buy groceries", "priority": "medium"},

{"task": "Book flight tickets", "priority": "low"},

{"task": "Finish report", "priority": "high"},

]

def sort_tasks(tasks):

sorted_tasks = sorted(tasks, key=lambda x: x['priority'])

return sorted_tasks

sorted_tasks = sort_tasks(tasks)

for task in sorted_tasks:

print(f"{task['priority'].capitalize()} priority: {task['task']}")

Script 2: Email Automation

Emails have always been a major source of frustration for me. I would spend countless hours responding to messages, scheduling meetings, and following up on various tasks. To alleviate this, I created a Python script to automate repetitive emailing tasks:

import smtplib

from email.mime.text import MIMEText

from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart

def send_email(to_email, subject, body):

from_email = "[email protected]"

from_password = "your_password"

msg = MIMEMultipart()

msg['From'] = from_email

msg['To'] = to_email

msg['Subject'] = subject

msg.attach(MIMEText(body, 'plain'))

server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.example.com', 587)

server.starttls()

server.login(from_email, from_password)

text = msg.as_string()

server.sendmail(from_email, to_email, text)

server.quit()

send_email("[email protected]", "Meeting Reminder", "Don't forget our meeting tomorrow at 10 AM.")

Script 3: Web Scraping for Research

As a freelance writer, gathering information from various websites is essential. Manually doing this is tedious, but Python's BeautifulSoup library allows me to scrape data quickly and efficiently:

import requests

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

def scrape_website(url):

response = requests.get(url)

soup = BeautifulSoup(response.content, 'html.parser')

titles = soup.find_all('h2')

for title in titles:

print(title.get_text())

scrape_website(url)

Script 4: Time Tracking

Time management has always been a challenge for me. I often found myself engrossed in one task while neglecting others. To combat this issue, I designed a script to track how I allocate my time throughout the day:

import time

tasks = [

{"task": "Writing", "duration": 0},

{"task": "Emails", "duration": 0},

{"task": "Research", "duration": 0},

]

def track_time(task_name):

start_time = time.time()

input(f"Press Enter to stop tracking '{task_name}'")

end_time = time.time()

return end_time - start_time

for task in tasks:

print(f"Tracking time for: {task['task']}")

task['duration'] = track_time(task['task'])

for task in tasks:

print(f"Task: {task['task']}, Time spent: {task['duration']} seconds")