Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Welcome to Prompting Curiosity, a podcast for the AI curious. No coding background required. I'm your host, Dr. Shantae Cofield, also known as the Maestro, and I created this show to explore what these AI tools actually are. Really, though, are the files in the computer, how to use them, and what they might mean for how we think, work, create, and move through life. Whether you're skeptical, intrigued, or already experimenting, you're in the right place. All that I ask is that you stay curious. All right, let's get into it.
[00:00:38] Hello, hello, hello, my curious people. Welcome to episode 42 of Prompting Curiosity. I'm your grateful host, the Maestro, and today we are talking about one of my favorite platforms, my favorite tools. Call it what you want used for automating tasks.
[00:00:54] Google Apps Script. Now, I have mentioned Google Apps Script in a pre. In previous episodes, like a, uh, handful of them, because I've used it for some of my projects. But was chatting with my girl, Dr. Ali Marty, aka Dr. Disney, aka rundisney, DPT on Instagram, and she shared how she had used Google Apps Script as part of her coaching workflow. And I was just like, yo, I gotta share that. Uh, but also I should do a full episode about Google Apps Script because it's just so helpful. So worth noting, Google Apps Script isn't AI, and of itself, it does have integrations with Gemini and Vertex, um, both of which are Google's AI platforms. But where AI comes in and how, uh, I've used it extensively, is to have your AI model of choice, be it Claude or Gemini or ChatGPT, whatever, uh, have your Google your. Excuse me, your AI model of choice, write the code that Google Apps Script will use in order to execute whatever automation it is that you're looking to. To cook up. So there's a good chance, as I'm saying this, that maybe you're not following, like, you're following along, but you have no idea what the fuck I'm actually talking about. You're like Google Apps or what are you talking about? Automation. Wait, even the name, I think is a little bit weird. Google Apps Script. But I think because of, like, the. I don't know, the S. The S is back to back weird to me. Uh, but I'm gonna start at the beginning for this episode, and I want to use this episode episode to break down what Google Apps Script is, give you a simplified version of how it works, and then give you an overview and a bit of a, you know, a list of things that you can do with it. Just some ideas. All right, so Right off the bat, I am such a fan of Google Apps Script because number one, it's free and number two, it's native to and works within an ecosystem that I am already hugely familiar with and that I use all the time, which is Google Workspace. Right. So what is it? Google Apps Script is Google's original low code automation platform. It allows us to build applications, uh, and these applications will customize this. The Workspace experience. Right, the Google Workspace experience. So Google's goal in creating Google Apps Script was to make it as simple as possible to augment the power of this dope thing, Google Workspace, for whatever use case someone might have fun. Fact, and this is why I said you call it the original low code automation platform is because Google Apps Script was originally developed in 2009. 2009, that is many, many, many years ago.
[00:03:37] Uh, and since then Google has continued to work on and deeply integrate it within the Google Workspace experience, which means that it can do a lot of stuff. It's not like they built it and forgot about it. They've built it and they've just continued to iterate and build on it and integrate it even further. Like, this thing is powerful and it is, it is hugely comprehensive and it is hugely capable. So something that helped me wrap my, my head around what the fuck this thing actually is, what Google Apps Script actually is, was just breaking down the name, right? So Google, obviously, Google Script, a script is simply a list of instructions, right? You write them once and the computer follows them every time, right? So script, list of instructions, Apps, Apps are any of the tools within the Google ecosystem. So docs, sheets, slides, forms, drive, Gmail, Calendar, those are all apps. We kind of don't think of it like that, but those are all apps. So Google Apps Script, what that means instructions, you write to make the Google tools do things automatically. Um, Google Apps Script, it will let you write code that you can. I shouldn't say it lets you write code. It uses code that you've written to automate tasks and expand the functionality of all of the Google Workspace apps. So Docs, Sheets, drives, Gmail Calendar, right? Connect them together, but it also just individually expands what they can, they can do. Right? So again, simplified summary. Google Apps Script is a platform within Google Workspace that allows Google Apps to talk to each other and do things automatically. Um, so how it works, I'm gonna give you like the non, the very non techie. I just wanna give you like an overview, conceptualized, so you can conceptualize how this thing works. So and share with you kind of the things that I think you'll actually care about that are worth worth noting. So first off, it is based on JavaScript, which is an OG coding language. The reason I am sharing that is because, no, you don't need to know how to code because you can just ask your favorite LLM and that is the type of code that it will generate for you, right. JavaScript.
[00:05:42] It is a, the actual platform itself, Google Apps Script. It is a browser based code editor, right? So think of it like a blank document but for code. So what it actually looks like is there's a sidebar on the left that shows you the project files. There's a main area that's like a giant text field where you can paste or write your script. If you know how to. If you know how to write code, you can write it, but I'd just be copying pasting it from Claude. There's a toolbar, toolbar at the top. It has a bunch of buttons, like, right. It has like a run button, save a drop down so you can select which function you want, um, to actually get to this, right? To actually access Google Apps. Strip Apps Script if you're not already inside of a Google App. So if you're not already inside of Google Doc or Google Sheets, it can honestly be a little bit of a pain in the. But if you're inside of any Google App already, you can just find it under Extensions and then you just. It's a dropdown menu and Apps Script is like one of two options there and then when you click it, it opens Google Apps Script in a new tab. I didn't realize that until I did research for this episode and I was like, I have been doing the most to open Google Apps Script and this is way easier. Um, so that's the easiest way to get to it. Uh, if you're not actually in a Google App, then you can go to script.google.com you log in with your Google account and then you'll be able to create a new standalone script. You'll be able to see all the ones that you've already created for that account as well.
[00:07:04] Uh, speaking of accounts, you have access to Google Apps Script with any Google account, including a free Gmail account. So if you have a paid Google workspace that gives you some other features outside of, um, Google Apps Script, um, but as it relates to Google Apps Script, because that's what we're talking about, any account can use it whether you have the paid workspace or you're just Using a free Gmail account.
[00:07:25] Now lastly, for this, how it works, the scripts themselves, like the instructions that the computer follows, they run when triggered, right? The scripts run when triggered. And what triggers them? You can either trigger it manually and be like, okay, I push this button and then script runs. Or it can happen on a schedule. So it can happen every Monday, can happen once a day, you choose. Or you can have it happen when something else happens, like a form gets submitted or uh, something like that. Right.
[00:07:56] So what can you actually build with Google Apps script? In many ways the sky is the limit as long as you're inside of Google Workspace, right? And there's a ton of apps within Google Workspace. Yes, daily quotas do exist and Google does limit how much your scripts can run in a given period. But it is very generous. And it's only an issue if you're automating things at scale. So for example, like you're processing thousands of form submissions in a day or sending hundreds of emails in a short window. But for you and me, the average individual user, you're not gonna even come close to these limits. Right? So a non exhaustive list of things you can do or build with Google Apps script. And I, I broke it into three kind of categories. So one is things you can do just in general within Google Workspace. The second one is connect what you can do if you connect it to, you know, connecting Google to other things. And then the third bucket is content creator specific uses. So within Google Workspace you can create a new Google Doc or folder in drive based on a trigger. You can auto forward emails based on certain criteria. Both of those first two I have done myself and I use these. You can send a weekly summary email pulled from sheet data. You can send an email automatically when a Google form is submitted. You can auto sort or auto filter rows in a sheet. When new data comes in, you can add a custom menu. This is cool. You can add a custom menu to a sheet or to a document with your own buttons. I've done that as well. You can create calendar events from rows in a sheet.
[00:09:26] Um, you can generate a weekly report document from sheet data and email it, move on to the next category. Connecting Google to other things. You can pull data from an external API and populate a sheet. I did that. So I spoke in a previous episode about how I use Acuity for my scheduling and you cannot export all of your bookings and it won't sort it based on the type of booking that they have. And I was like, what the fuck but they do have an API. API is what Application program interface. Um, so you can connect to that. And then I wrote a Google Apps script and I connected to Acuity and it pulls all the data and it organizes it into a Google sheet. I just push a button and it pulls all of, all of the uh, all of the appointments that I've had ever. And you can set the date range if you want. And it organizes them by appointment type. It exports a person's name, their contact information, all of that. So that's a really cool, really cool use case. And it's free. Uh, you can send data from Gmail to an external API. So I use that as well. Um, you. I said in a very old episode that I whenever I have cool resources in order to populate them on this website. So if you go to Curious, excuse me, prompting curiosity. Com, I have a section that's called Curious Finds and it's a list of just all of the resources that I use that I read that I find interesting. In order to create that and easily create that, I set it up and I had, I uh, think probably I had chatgpt help me out with that. At the time we, uh, created a Google app script so that I can send the information about the resource to myself. I send it to actually an alias, uh, Gmail address and then that populates on my website because I integrated it with my website. Uh, and so it was really cool. My, the email, it just has like the body. Excuse me, the subject line says the name of the like article. Let's say it's an article I'm reading. Then the body of the email, all that it has inside of it is the URL and uh, like a blurb about it and what type of media it is. If it's a YouTube video or if it's an article, then I send it in a specific order, I write that in a specific order, I hit send and it pulls that via the API and it populates it uh, onto my website, which is awesome. And it's free, right? And so it's a super easy way for me to keep track of things. Uh, it puts it. What it does is it sends from the email to a Google uh, sheet and then the Google sheet, I have that integrated with my, my website, but all of it free.
[00:12:00] Uh, content creator specific uses. You can create an episode tracking sheet that automate that. Excuse me, that updates automatically. Actually Dr. Valley has done this as well for um, her podcast episodes.
[00:12:12] You can build a content calendar, like an actual calendar that populates From a sheet, you can send yourself a digest email of everything you. You need to do that week. So I realize, like, none of these are super sexy, but these tasks can be genuinely helpful and perhaps best of all, they're free.
[00:12:32] Like, uh, how are you gonna complain about this? So your best bet in terms of actually just like with anything when it comes to AI and this tech, your best bet to understand it and like, really grasp what I'm talking about is to try it out. And the best way to do that is to simply chat with your, your favorite LLM about what you need, like what task it is that you're trying to, uh, to automate and then have it write the script for you. Right? And also lay out the steps so you, it, it will walk you through how to set up a Google Apps script. It's not gonna be like, okay, here's some, Here's a code. Go figure it out. Like, it will take you through every, every step.
[00:13:10] My hope and the reason that I'm that I mean this episode is all at all is because I just want you to be aware that Google Apps script even exists.
[00:13:18] This way you can ask your favorite LLM whether or not it would be the best tool for whatever problem it is that you're trying to solve or whatever task it is that you want to automate. Right. All right, move to the last, the final part of the episode and then we'll be done for for today. So how I used AI this week? Each episode, if you're new here, each episode I share a quick example of how I or someone in the audience sometimes use AI that week. So, uh, this week, like I mentioned at the start of the episode, uh, the topic Google Apps script was inspired by Dr. Rally and how she has been using it in her coaching business. So I'm going to just focus on one part of her workflow because of how dope it is. But she's using it in quite a few ways. So she does, does run Disney training coaching. And so if you're into rundisney and you want a running coach, she's a doctor, physical therapy. Hit her up. I will link her stuff in the uh, in the show notes, but she does rundisney training plan. She makes rundisney training plans for people, the people she coaches. And she sends their weekly training, their monthly training via, uh, a Google sheet.
[00:14:27] So she created a Google app script that takes what's on that sheet and blocks it out on their calendar. That is brilliant. That is brilliant. Because most of these people are accessing things via their phone. And it can be a little bit annoying to access a Google Sheet from your phone, but if it's put in as an event on your calendar, that's awesome. So for example, if she has programmed a 10 mile run for that person and that person's supposed to run at a 15 minute per mile pace, then it will block out 150 minutes on the calendar and then in the event description it will have all the directions that she has put in the sheet for that person. So how long it should take them, um, what they need to do the paces that they need to run.
[00:15:15] Yes, this requires that the user grant permissions, but this is fucking cool.
[00:15:21] Additionally, one of the other ways she's using Google Apps script is that folks can leave her notes in the actual Google sheet because that's where the training plan is. So they can leave her notes about how it went, things like that.
[00:15:32] And she has set up a Google Apps script so that at the end of the day all of the notes from all of her clients, right, any notes that they've left will get sent to her in a single summary email. Right? That is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly cool. Incredibly smart way to use it and incredibly free way to use it as well. And I was just like, yo, we were talking back and forth and I was like, I gotta share this. And then I was like, I should probably make a whole episode about Google Apps script because people may have no idea like what exactly it is. And so I don't want to just throw out a use case even. That's what I've been doing when I've explained how, what I've been doing with it. But uh, I felt that a, uh, an episode, a full episode was warranted. So hopefully you found it helpful. That is all that I got for you today. Uh, hopefully you found it helpful. If you did, I got a little cta. Consider sharing it with someone you know who's curious about the old AI. Or if you don't know anyone that's curious about AI, maybe just post it in your stories and tag me.
[00:16:34] Right? I1 it's just fun to see who's listening. But even more than that, I do want people to know about this awesome tool. Like anytime I find something, I'm like, yo, this thing, there's no catch here. It's been around since 2009. Like it's legit. It's not going anywhere. They're only investing more into it. They're integrating their native, uh, Gemini, um, and Vertex into it. Like this is a really cool tool. I want people to know about it. And, uh, yeah, so consider taking a little screenshot share to the stories. Tag me the movement maestro, and I'll be forever grateful. Don't forget, folks, I have a companion newsletter, the Curious Companion, that drops every Thursday. That is basically the podcast episode in text format. So if you prefer to read, um, maybe this episode is one of those you want to read. You, uh, can check that out, or maybe just want the written record of it. You can join the newsletter fam. Or you can check out the blogs. Same same. Uh, head to prompting Curiosity.com Newsletter or just check out the link in the show notes.
[00:17:33] As always, my friends, endlessly, endlessly, endlessly appreciative. Uh, for every single one of you. Until we chat again next Thursday, stay curious.
