How to Use Make.com With Productivity Apps Step by Step

When you pair make.com with your favorite productivity apps, you can build simple systems that capture tasks, keep them organized, and help you focus on what matters most.

This how-to guide walks you through a practical approach inspired by the original Make blog article on effective use of productivity apps. You will learn how to design a workflow that you can trust instead of juggling endless tools and notifications.

Step 1: Clarify Your Goals Before Using Make.com

Before you connect anything to make.com, you need clarity about what you want your tools to achieve for you. Technology cannot fix a vague process.

Start by deciding what “being productive” actually means in your life or business.

Define what productivity means for you

Ask yourself:

• What are my most important outcomes this month?
• Which activities move the needle most toward those outcomes?
• Which tasks distract me without adding real value?

Write down 3–5 concrete goals. For example:

• Ship one new feature for a product.
• Publish two marketing articles.
• Close three high-value sales opportunities.

These goals will guide how you use make.com and your productivity apps. Any tool or automation that does not support these outcomes is optional.

Choose just a few core apps to connect to Make.com

A major problem highlighted in the source article is using too many apps at once. It creates friction and decision fatigue. Start with a minimal toolset that you will connect through make.com:

• A task manager or project tool (e.g., Todoist, Asana, ClickUp)
• A notes or knowledge app (e.g., Notion, Evernote, OneNote)
• A calendar (e.g., Google Calendar, Outlook)
• Optional: a communication tool (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams)

Your goal is to have one place to:

• Capture ideas and incoming tasks.
• Store and organize reference notes.
• Plan when you will actually do the work.

Step 2: Build a Unified Capture System With Make.com

Once you know your goals and core apps, make.com can help you capture everything in a trusted place so nothing slips through the cracks.

Design one central inbox for tasks

Decide which app will be your master task inbox. This is the place you will review every day.

Then, design automations in make.com so that all important inputs land in that inbox. Typical sources include:

• Emails you need to act on.
• Messages from Slack or Teams.
• Form submissions or support tickets.
• Ideas you quickly jot down in notes.

In your scenario builder on make.com, think in terms of triggers and actions:

• Trigger examples: new email with a label, new Slack message in a channel, new note in a specific notebook.
• Action examples: create a task, add a comment, append text to a central “inbox” note.

Sample capture workflow using Make.com

1. Trigger: New flagged email in your email provider.
2. Action: Create a task in your task manager with the email subject as the title and the email body as the task description.
3. Optional action: Add a link back to the original email so you can reply later.

Repeat this process for a few other inputs, such as starred messages or form submissions. Keep the flows simple at first so they are easy to maintain.

Step 3: Connect Notes and Tasks Through Make.com

Many people waste time searching for meeting notes, files, and context. With make.com, you can automatically connect your notes app to your task manager so important information is always at hand when you need it.

Create notes from tasks or events

Use make.com to generate structured notes when specific triggers occur. For example:

1. Trigger: New calendar event tagged as “meeting”.
2. Action: Create a note in your notes app with the meeting title and date.
3. Action: Add subheadings such as “Agenda”, “Decisions”, and “Action items”.

This pattern helps ensure you never show up to a meeting without a place to capture outcomes, and you can later turn action items into tasks.

Link back notes to tasks with Make.com

For key projects, build a two-way relationship between tasks and notes:

• From tasks to notes: when a new project task is created, make.com adds the task as a checklist item in a project note.
• From notes to tasks: when you tag a bullet point in your meeting note with “TODO”, make.com creates a task in your task manager.

This approach keeps your thinking (notes) and doing (tasks) in sync without manual copy-paste.

Step 4: Use Make.com to Support Daily and Weekly Reviews

The source article emphasizes that productivity apps are only effective when you review them regularly. Make.com can reduce the friction of those reviews and help you stay consistent.

Automate reminders for reviews

Set up simple recurring scenarios inside make.com:

• Daily review reminder in your task manager at the end of your workday.
• Weekly review task every Friday to tidy projects, close loops, and plan the next week.

During a daily review, you might:

• Check your unified inbox for new tasks.
• Clarify and assign due dates or labels.
• Reschedule tasks you did not complete.

During a weekly review, you might:

• Scan all active projects.
• Ensure each has at least one clear next action.
• Archive or defer projects that no longer matter.

Create a review dashboard with Make.com

You can also use make.com to gather key information into a summary note or message before your review. For example:

1. Trigger: Every Friday at 3 p.m. (scheduled trigger).
2. Actions:
   • Search tasks due next week and list them.
   • Collect open tasks without a due date.
   • Append this information to a “Weekly Review” note in your notes app.

With this dashboard ready, you can jump straight into planning instead of hunting through each app separately.

Step 5: Keep Your Make.com System Simple and Sustainable

More complexity does not equal more productivity. The original article stresses staying flexible and adjusting your setup as your work changes. Make.com should support that flexibility, not lock you into rigid rules.

Review and refine your automations regularly

Every few weeks, ask yourself:

• Which automations save real time and reduce stress?
• Which ones create noise or duplicate tasks?
• Which tools am I no longer using daily?

Inside make.com, disable or delete scenarios that no longer serve your current goals. Add new ones only when you have a clear use case, such as eliminating a recurring manual step.

Set personal rules for using apps integrated by Make.com

Tools are only as effective as the habits behind them. Consider simple rules like:

• Process your task inbox once or twice a day, not constantly.
• Turn messages into tasks instead of keeping them unread.
• Use your calendar only for time-bound commitments and focused work blocks.

By combining these habits with carefully chosen automations on make.com, you gain a lean system that supports deep, focused work instead of chasing notifications.

Next Steps: Expanding Your Make.com Productivity System

Once your basic setup is running smoothly, you can extend it to new areas such as CRM, content workflows, or client onboarding. If you need help designing more advanced automations or an overall workflow strategy, consider consulting a specialist.

For tailored guidance on automation strategy, implementation, and optimization, you can explore services from Consultevo, which focuses on operational efficiency and scalable systems.

Start small, stay consistent, and let make.com handle the routine work so you can focus on the tasks that truly matter.

Need Help With Make.com?

If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your Make scenarios, work with ConsultEvo — certified workflow and automation specialists.

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