The problem with automating 'every day stuff' is that processes aren't formalized in most cases. So there isn't an interface to implement against. There are no clear or reliable sources of data. Management needs to understand the issue, and if it doesn't there isn't much you can do as a single individual. So I more and more often tend to ask myself, if it is really feasible to automate task X.
A key question is "will this task benefit from formalization". If the answer is Yes, one can begin to structure it and gain benefits quite quickly. Clear and relatively quick gains, and helping out the people that do these tasks today, is key to buy-in. Then once a structure is in place, one can consider automating it.
I was all gung-ho about automating some things at a job I had but soon found out I couldn't for legal reasons. Even a script to change formats of videos would be seen as tampering by certain legal folks. Sometimes you don't know or can't see the consequences of things you're no privy to.
