Would you like to schedule emails to be sent at a later date from your Mac? This can be useful if you often rely on reminders to send emails on time, whether it's for birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, work-related messages, or any other occasion. With the help of Automator on your Mac, you can set up scheduled email sending directly through the Mail app.

The default Mail app that comes pre-installed on iPhones, iPads, and Macs is widely used by people to keep track of their emails for both personal and professional purposes. While it works seamlessly with your email provider and integrates well with macOS, it does miss out on certain advanced features—like scheduling emails to be sent later. However, thanks to the built-in Automator app on Mac, you can create custom workflows and quick actions to perform tasks not natively supported by macOS. In this guide, we’ll show you how to use Automator to schedule emails using the Mac Mail app.

How to Schedule Emails from Mac Using Automator

Automator may seem intimidating at first, but if you follow the steps below carefully, you should have no trouble setting everything up correctly.

1. Click the Finder icon in the Dock and navigate to “Applications” in the left pane. Then, open “Automator”. Alternatively, you can launch Automator via Spotlight search by pressing Command Space bar.
2. When Automator opens, a pop-up window will appear asking you to choose a document type. Select “Workflow” to continue.
3. From the Library section on the left, select “Mail”, then click on “New Mail Message” to get started.
4. You’ll now be prompted to compose your message. Fill in the content of the email and specify the recipient’s address.
5. Once you’ve finished composing the message, go back to the left pane and click on “Send Outgoing Messages” to add it to your workflow. Make sure it appears after the “New Mail Message” action.
6. Save your workflow by clicking File -> Save from the menu bar.
7. A small window will pop up. Give your workflow a meaningful name and save it under “Applications” on your Mac for easy access later. Click “Save” and close Automator.
8. Next, open the Calendar app on your Mac from the Dock. Navigate to the date when you want the email to be sent, then double-click on the date to create a new event. In the pop-up, click the “Add Alert” option as shown.
9. More options will become available. Click on “None” next to “alert” to reveal a dropdown menu.
10. At the bottom of the list, choose “Custom”.
11. Another window will appear. Click on “Message with sound” to bring up an additional dropdown.
12. Choose “Open file” so you can assign a specific file to the alert—in this case, the Automator workflow file you created earlier.
13. After selecting “Open file”, click on the “Calendar” option shown here to move forward.
14. Then, click “Other” to proceed.
15. Now browse for your workflow file. Since you saved it in the “Applications” folder earlier, navigate there and select your “Schedule Email” file.
16. Finally, click “OK” in the Calendar app’s pop-up window, and you’re done.

That’s it—you’ve successfully scheduled an email on your Mac using Automator. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

As you can see, creating a custom email scheduling workflow with Automator isn’t too difficult. Adding it as a Calendar event is also a clever workaround (and you can do more than just send emails—Calendar can also open apps and files automatically). If you followed along step by step, you should now understand the process and be able to repeat it whenever needed.

There’s one important thing to remember: the email will only be sent if your Mac is powered on and awake at the scheduled time. That’s the main drawback of this method, aside from its initial complexity.

In addition to building your own workflows, Automator can also be used to create Quick Actions. For instance, you could make a Quick Action that instantly resizes images on your Mac with minimal effort. There’s a lot you can accomplish once you learn how Automator works.

If you find this method too complicated for regular use, consider trying third-party email clients like Spark, which are available on the Mac App Store and support email scheduling. If you use a Google account, you can also schedule emails directly through the Gmail web interface.

The Shortcuts app offers some automation capabilities too, though they are far more limited compared to what Automator provides across Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Are you planning to use Automator for scheduling emails on your Mac? What do you think about this workaround? Have you used Automator before for other tasks? Do you believe Apple should add native email scheduling to catch up with other platforms? Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

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