Choose What To Automate:

Google Workspace Studio

@LisaBerghoff

As educators, our to-do list often feels never ending. Between responding to emails, keeping up with lesson planning, and staying on top of our students' needs, it can feel like we're running as fast as we can on a hamster wheel. If you've ever wished your Google Docs could talk to your Gmail or that your Google forms could automatically organize themselves into Drive folders without you needing to lift a finger, keep reading.

What is Google Workspace Studio? 

Google Workspace Studio is essentially the connective tissue of the Google ecosystem. It is powered by Gemini and lets you automate multi-step tasks. You do not need to know how to code, you can just describe what you want to happen. For example: When I get an email with a pdf from Ron, save it to my "Edtech" folder. The studio builds the automation for you. 

Why Should I Try Google Workspace Studio?

Here are a few reasons I think you should give this a try.

1. Automate some of the tasks you do repetitively that don't actually require your expertise. Things like organizing your inbox or your drive can be handled without you spending the time on it. 

2. Make sure you never miss an important email. You can set up agents to scan your inbox for key words like "IEP meeting" or "please respond by" and ping you in Google chat immediately. 

3. Make digital organization easier. This can act like your own personal filing clerk. It can move between sheets, docs, and drive so your online spaces stay neater. 

4. Know and understand how these types of tools work. This is a very low risk way to try out agentic ai. Regardless of how you feel about it, it's in our ecosystem. Knowledge is power so this can give you some information. 

How Do I Use Google Workspace Studio?

You can get started in 3 simple steps.

1. Access the studio. Head over to studio.workspace.google.com or click the icon you see in the upper right corner of your screen in gmail.

2. Describe your dream scenario. On the "discover" page you will see a box that says " Describe a task for Gemini". Type exactly what you want in plain English. For example, "Every Friday at 2:30pm, send me a summary of all emails from parents I haven't replied to yet". 

3. Gemini will show you a "flow". It's a visual map of the steps. If it looks good, click on "test run", and then toggle it to on. If not, you can go in and edit to make it the way you want. 

Other options:

There are also templates of pre-made Flows if you aren't sure where to start. 

This short video does a nice job of showing the three ways to get started with Google Workspace Studio. You can use Gemini, use a template, or create on on your own from scratch.  

What are some examples of ways I could use this?

1. Problem: Parents are emailing you scanned permission slips and they are getting lost in your inbox.

    Starter: When I receive an email with an attachment

    Filter: If the subject contains "permission slip"

    Action: Save the attachment to a specific drive folder AND add a row to a Google sheet with the student's name and date received. 

2. Problem: You walk into school Monday morning feeling overwhelmed by 40 unread emails from the weekend.

    Starter: On Monday at 7:30am. 

    Action: Use Gemini to recap emails from the last 48 hours. Send a summary to Google chat.

Those are pretty advanced. Here are some nice templates to try.

• Star emails for follow-up
• Notify me about messages with a keyword
• Notify me about urgent emails
• Auto-add email attachments to Drive
• Notify me about emails from key people
• Send guests summaries and action items after a meeting
• Get meeting reminders in Chat
• Auto-create tasks for me from meeting transcripts

Want to try Google Workspace Studio but feeling like you want a friend to try it with you? Let me know. I'm here to help!