How Nico Used Python to Automate 70% of His Job — and Accidentally Became the Office Legend

“Why work hard, when you can script smart?” — Nico, probably.

👋 Meet Nico: The Quiet Game-Changer

Let me tell you about Nico.

He wasn’t the loudest person in the office. Not the one with 10 tabs of motivational quotes open. Just… calm, reliable, always had his headphones in, and somehow always delivered on time — even when deadlines felt like a prank.

Nico was officially a data analyst. Unofficially? The one quietly keeping chaos at bay. Most of us spent hours doing the same things over and over — reports, formatting, emails. Nico? He just smiled and sipped his coffee. It didn’t click until one day, we saw him open a terminal window and type something…

Python.

🧠 The Pain: Same Stuff, Different Day

Here’s what Nico (and honestly, most of us) dealt with:

• Manually opening 27 Excel files

• Copy-pasting data into a client-approved format

• Writing the same email every morning with minor tweaks

• Manually deleting blank rows and columns

• Triple-checking the report names (always a drama)

It was like the office version of Groundhog Day.

But while we were silently suffering, Nico started searching things like:

• “Can I automate Excel with Python?”

• “How to send email attachments without Outlook”

• “Can Python help me pretend I’m working while I nap?” (Okay, probably not that one… or maybe yes?)

🐍 Chapter 1: Nico and the Python Awakening

One Monday morning, Nico found a book titled “Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.” He started small.

🗂️ Project 1: Renaming Files Automatically

You know those files:

• Final_Presentation_v7_REAL_final_THIS_one.pptx

Nico wrote this:

import os

for i, filename in enumerate(os.listdir('reports')):
    new_name = f"report_{i+1}.xlsx"
    os.rename(f"reports/{filename}", f"reports/{new_name}")

Boom. 200 files renamed in seconds. No drama. No clicking around.

That was Nico’s first automation win.

Then things started snowballing…

⚙️ Chapter 2: The Automation Domino Effect

📊 Cleaning Excel Data

Before:

• Manually deleting empty rows

• Formatting every column

• Wasting 30 minutes

After:

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_excel("raw_data.xlsx")
df.dropna(how='all', inplace=True)
df.columns = [col.strip().lower().replace(" ", "_") for col in df.columns]
df.to_excel("clean_data.xlsx", index=False)

One script, infinite time saved.

📧 Automating Emails

Before:

• Manually writing emails

• Attaching the wrong file (we’ve all done it)

• Copy-pasting the same message again and again

After:

import smtplib
from email.message import EmailMessage

msg = EmailMessage()
msg['Subject'] = 'Daily Report'
msg['From'] = 'nico@officehero.com'
msg['To'] = 'team@workplace.com'
msg.set_content('Attached is the daily report.')

with open('clean_data.xlsx', 'rb') as f:
    msg.add_attachment(f.read(), filename='clean_data.xlsx', maintype='application', subtype='vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet')

with smtplib.SMTP('smtp.officehero.com') as server:
    server.login('nico', 'notmypassword123')
    server.send_message(msg)

By the time we were sipping our first coffee, Nico’s report was already in everyone’s inbox.

🌐 Scraping Data from the Web

Nico wanted the latest currency exchange rates for a report. Instead of visiting the site every day…

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

url = 'https://www.exchangerates.org.uk/'
response = requests.get(url)
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')

rate = soup.find('span', {'id': 'shd2b'}).text
print(f"Exchange rate: {rate}")

Boom — rates in seconds, no clicks needed.

🧪 Testing Web Forms Automatically

Form filling for daily check-ins? That got old fast.

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

browser = webdriver.Chrome()
browser.get('https://dailycheckinform.com')

browser.find_element(By.NAME, 'name').send_keys('Nico')
browser.find_element(By.NAME, 'status').click()
browser.find_element(By.ID, 'submit').click()

What used to take 5 minutes now took 5 lines of code.

💥 Chapter 3: Quietly Becoming a Legend

People started noticing. At first, it was:

“Hey, how’d Nico send that email so fast?”

Then:

“Wait, you’re telling me he built a script to clean our weekly reports?”

And eventually:

“Nico made a Slack bot that reminds me to submit timesheets?!”

He didn’t brag. But word spread. And suddenly, everyone had a “Hey Nico, quick question…” moment.

He even built a dashboard to track report submissions — complete with charts, alerts, and a cheeky loading GIF.

And just like that, Nico became more than just a data analyst. He became the quiet force behind the team’s productivity boost.

🧠 Why Automating Routine Tasks is a Game-Changer

Repetition kills creativity. When your brain is stuck in a loop of copy-paste, checkbox ticking, and spreadsheet scanning — you’re not thinking, you’re surviving.

That’s where automation comes in.

When Nico automated 70% of his repetitive work:

• His stress went down

• His ideas went up

• His value skyrocketed

He started contributing to strategic decisions instead of spreadsheet cleanups. He had time to mentor junior staff. He took on exciting projects he previously avoided.

In short: automation gave him bandwidth to become better — professionally and personally.

Want more energy after work to learn, rest, or work on your side hustle? Automate. Want to reduce human errors from tired fingers? Automate. Want to be known as the silent powerhouse in your team? Automate.

Because in the age of tools, working smarter is working harder — just… better.

🛠️ Nico’s Go-To Tools

📈 The Result?

1. 70% less manual work

2. More time for real analysis

3. Promoted within the year

4. Started teaching others casually over coffee

5. Smiled before 10 AM (miraculous)

And while the rest of us were still grumbling over Excel freezes, Nico was exploring machine learning.

📚 Lessons Nico (and We) Learned

• Automating one thing makes you want to automate more

• You don’t need to be a developer to write useful scripts

• Python errors are just puzzles in disguise

• Stack Overflow is always your friend

• People respect efficiency — even if they don’t understand the code

• Being smart with tools is not cheating. It’s the new normal.

🎯 Final Thought

Nico didn’t automate his job to avoid work — he automated the unnecessary parts, so he could focus on bigger things: insights, strategy, growth… and yeah, maybe a bit more coffee.

He became more valuable because he worked less on the wrong things — and more on the right ones.

So go ahead — learn Python, automate something dull, and don’t be surprised when people start asking you for help.

print("Work smarter. Live better. Automate wisely.")

“Being lazy is an art. Automation is the brush. Python is the paint.” — Nico