⚠️ Before automating any system you should test different ideas on a subset of the problem. Beware of Cognitive Bias affecting your judgement.
Patterns can be applied more generally outside of Software Development.
Candidate design features for reuse (Article 
) include:
1. Adaptable
2. Brief: small size
3. Consistent
4. Correct
5. Extensible
6. Fast
7. Flexible
8. Generic
9. Localise volatile design assumptions (David Parnas)
10. Modular
11. Orthogonal
12. Parametrised
13. Simple: low complexity
14. Stable under changing requirements
If a problem is common enough that you've seen it solved the same way 3 or more times, try create a business process for it and document it under the Patterns List.
If the process costs too much or would have a massive payoff if it were sped up, prioritise it for automating using software or hardware.
It might also be worth automating if you just feel like learning. Sometimes that can be fun :).