Two Hours Back Every Week, and I Didn't Buy a New Tool

I had three apps doing overlapping jobs: a note tool, a summarizer, and a task tracker. Every input got copied twice. I cut the middle one and let the other two talk directly.

Two hours a week came back, not from speed but from not re-entering the same data. The tools didn't change; the plumbing did.

Before buying the next productivity app, audit the copies. Duplicate entry is where the time actually goes.

The best automation is often subtraction, not addition.