5 Apps Script Automations to Save You Time Every Week

The Daily Grind of Repetitive Tasks

In any role, there are tasks that are essential but repetitive. Generating weekly reports, sending personalized follow-up emails, organizing files—these activities consume valuable time that could be better spent on strategic initiatives. Google Workspace is a powerful suite of tools, but its true potential is unlocked when you automate these manual processes. This is where Google Apps Script comes in.

What is Google Apps Script?

Google Apps Script is a cloud-based scripting language based on JavaScript that lets you create business applications that integrate with Google Workspace. Think of it as the connective tissue that allows your Google Apps (Sheets, Docs, Gmail, Calendar, etc.) to talk to each other and perform actions automatically.

Here are five practical automations you can build to reclaim your workweek.

1. Automated Email Reports from Google Sheets

The Problem: You spend every Monday morning filtering data in a Google Sheet, copying the key metrics, and pasting them into an email to send to your team or stakeholders.

The Solution: Write an Apps Script that automatically reads a specific range in your Google Sheet, formats it into a clean HTML table, and emails it to a predefined list of recipients on a set schedule (e.g., every Monday at 9 AM).

function sendWeeklyReport() {
  const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName('Sales Data');
  const data = sheet.getRange('A1:D10').getValues();
  // ... logic to format data as HTML ...
  MailApp.sendEmail('team@example.com', 'Weekly Sales Report', '', {htmlBody: formattedData});
}

2. Personalized Bulk Emails with Gmail and Sheets

The Problem: You need to send a hundred personalized emails for a marketing campaign or event invitation. Using mail merge can be clunky, and manual sending is out of the question.

The Solution: Create a Google Sheet with columns for Name, Email, and CustomMessage. An Apps Script can iterate through each row, draft a personalized email using the data from that row, and send it via your Gmail account. This maintains a personal touch while being incredibly efficient.