How to schedule emails in Gmail

There are any number of reasons why it’s sometimes a good idea to roll with a write-now-send-later approach to emails.

Maybe you’ve got a big personal announcement coming up, but it’s happening at a very specific time when you won’t be around. Perhaps you really want to rave to a friend about everything you loved in Spider-Man: No Way Home while it’s fresh in your mind, except they’re not seeing it until tomorrow.

It’s equally helpful at work. Many of our employers have people spread out in different time zones across the country, if not the world. For email-heavy jobs especially, something you send during an Australian co-worker’s overnight may get buried; but if you schedule the send, you can ensure it pops up when they’re actually awake. Sometimes, too, it’s just momentum: You’re working hard, rolling through deadline after deadline, and you want to get a jump on future business.

Whatever it is, having the ability to schedule emails is a gift for those of us who like to work and live life at our own pace. Thankfully, Google’s widely used makes this incredibly easy to do. I’m here to run you through it step by step.

1. Start a new email

Whether you’re writing in a browser or from a mobile device, the first thing you’ll want to do is open up Gmail and craft your email. Yeah, this is super obvious being that it’s what we’re here to talk about. But it’s important! Scheduling an email is the same as hitting send, so you’ll want to get your note written before you set up when it’s sent out.

Credit: Screenshot by Mashable

2. Select “Schedule send” and choose your time

Once your email is set it’s time to actually schedule that puppy. The process is slightly different when you’re sending from a browser versus sending from the mobile app, but the result is the same.

If you’re writing from Gmail.com, click the little downward-facing arrow that’s on the right side of the “Send” button. And if you’re in the app, tap or click the three dots in the top right corner of the email window. Both of these open up more email options; “Schedule send” is the one you’re looking for (it’ll be the only option that appears when you’re writing from a browser).

Credit: Screenshot by Mashable

Wherever you’re sending from, you’ll see a pop-up that gives you a few fixed options for choosing a time as well as one option that lets you customize a specific day and time. In most cases that last option is your best bet, but Gmail offers up sensible suggestions like “tomorrow afternoon” or, if you’re writing over the weekend “Monday morning.”

That’s all there is to it! Select the day and time you want to send your email out and Gmail takes care of the rest.