Snap your fingers

Use the phrase “snap your fingers and…” to say that you can do something quickly and easily, almost instantaneously. It implies that the task or action requires very little effort or time.

For example:

• Our teacher is really good at coming up with exercises. It’s like she can snap her fingers and come up with a really good quiz question.

But since few things in life actually do require very little effort or time, this phrase is often used in the negative. For example:

• The boss thinks we can just snap our fingers and produce a new presentation. He doesn’t realize that these take time to put together.
• I wish I could snap my fingers and increase our sales, but it doesn’t work that way.