Python Scripts That Automate My Daily Tasks

Introduction

I reach for Python when a task has three properties: it involves file manipulation, text processing, or API calls; I need it done in an hour not a day; and I'd rather not maintain a full application for it. Python's standard library is remarkably complete for these jobs, and when the standard library falls short, the ecosystem fills the gap quickly.

Over the past few years I've built up a small collection of automation scripts that run regularly and save me meaningful time. This post shares the most useful ones — with working code, explanations of the key patterns, and notes on what made each one worth building.

Core Concepts

Python for Automation: Key Stdlib Modules

• pathlib — modern, readable file path manipulation
• subprocess — running shell commands
• argparse — building CLI interfaces
• json, csv — data parsing
• re — regular expressions
• datetime — date and time handling
• shutil — high-level file operations (copy, move, archive)
• logging — proper logging (much better than print statements)
• os — OS-level operations (environment variables, directory creation)

These cover 80% of automation use cases before you need pip install anything.

Script 1: Bulk File Organiser

This script organises a messy downloads folder by file extension into categorised subdirectories. I run it weekly.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
organise.py — Sort files into directories by extension.
Usage: python organise.py ~/Downloads
"""

import argparse
import shutil
from pathlib import Path
from datetime import datetime

# Mapping of extensions to category names
CATEGORIES = {
    'images': {'.jpg', '.jpeg', '.png', '.gif', '.webp', '.svg', '.ico', '.bmp'},
    'documents': {'.pdf', '.doc', '.docx', '.xls', '.xlsx', '.ppt', '.pptx', '.txt', '.md'},
    'code': {'.py', '.js', '.ts', '.tsx', '.jsx', '.html', '.css', '.json', '.yaml', '.yml'},
    'archives': {'.zip', '.tar', '.gz', '.rar', '.7z', '.bz2'},
    'videos': {'.mp4', '.mov', '.avi', '.mkv', '.webm'},
    'audio': {'.mp3', '.wav', '.flac', '.aac', '.ogg'},
}


def get_category(extension: str) -> str:
    ext = extension.lower()
    for category, extensions in CATEGORIES.items():
        if ext in extensions:
            return category
    return 'misc'


def organise_directory(source: Path, dry_run: bool = False) -> dict[str, int]:
    moved = {}
    skipped = 0

    for item in source.iterdir():
        if item.is_dir():
            continue  # Don't touch directories

        category = get_category(item.suffix)
        dest_dir = source / category

        if not dry_run:
            dest_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True)

        # Handle name collisions
        if item.name in dest_dir.iterdir():
            dest_dir = dest_dir / f"{item.name}.copy"

        moved[item.name] = dest_dir
        skipped += 1

    return moved

• Automatizacija fajlova
• Web scraping
• Task scheduling

More information: Real Python