If you are doing manual testing - executing all your test cases manually and reporting issues, I would like to share few things which may be useful for you while doing day to day manual testing effectively. You can automate tasks listed below either yourself or taking help from someone which will allow you to concentrate more on test execution.

Build download process- Automate your build/image/release download process irrespective of the application under test.

Setup process - You may need to do many setup tasks before starting testing. That includes environment set up , test case specific setup before executing a test case and any cleanup task after execution is completed. Some of common setup tasks are listed below:
  • Take database backup
  • Connect to database and populate data in required tables
  • Cleanup some table in database (this also can be requirement for a test case)
  • Cleanup old log files
  • Environment checks like os version, browser version, sufficient memory, internet connection etc.
  • Copy test data from server
  • Make test data ready for use - for example if test data is stored in archive format in server you may need to extract it before using in your local work space so and so on. 
List will increase as per your requirement and complexity of the SUT.

Tear down process - Now comes post processing tasks. Again there are many post processing tasks that can be automated. I am listing few below.
  • Delete records from a table in database
  • Delete test data files 
  • Delete intermediate files like screen shots, intermediate specific log files if test case is passed
  • Checking for a particular output file - requirement may be like that file should get generated after test is completed.
  • Copying test results, relevant logs to results repository.  
All the tasks i mentioned above can be achieved with the help of simple scripts. Once written, those scripts can be used for both manual or automated testing.

Is this makes sense? Do share your comments and experience on the same.