Automations on a schedule

Set up a small recurring job in Grok and check both its output and its timing. This walkthrough uses a weekly checklist with no email connection, so you can learn the scheduling controls before adding other tools.

Before you start

• A signed-in Grok account and access to grok.com/automations. xAI says scheduled automations are available to everyone; email triggers require SuperGrok.
• Three recurring tasks you want included, an explicit timezone, and a delivery time. For example: Monday at 08:30 in America/Toronto.
• A way to check the result in Grok. App or email notifications are optional, and depend on the notification choice you make.

Want to do it yourself?

Difficulty

6 out of 10

Estimated completion time

45–90 minutes, plus a scheduled trial run

Skills you’ll need: Test a bounded request, configure its schedule, and check delivered output and the pause control.

I’ll do it myselfI’d rather get help

How this helps your brand

A timely checklist can help you remember quotes, bookings, and follow-ups. Keeping it distinct from connected business data prevents a reminder from being mistaken for a completed review of real customer work.

1. 1

   Step 1: Choose a job that can run from its instructions

   Start with a checklist you supply: review open quotes, check next week’s bookings, and plan one follow-up. The automation should return those items and one question to help you prioritize.

   Do not ask it to report actual quotes or bookings unless you later connect the systems containing them. A scheduled request does not give Grok access to business data by itself.

   Illustrated exampleA scheduled prompt only knows what you give it

   You provide

   • 01Review open quotes
   • 02Check next week’s bookings
   • 03Plan one follow-up

   instructions

   Useful result

   Three-item checklist+ one prioritization question

   ↛No connected records means no claims about actual quotes or bookings.

2. 2

   Step 2: Create the automation

   Open grok.com/automations and start a new automation. Give it a recognizable name such as Monday planning checklist. Paste the instructions below into Instructions.

   You can also ask Grok in chat to create an automation, but open the saved automation afterward to inspect the settings. Each run uses the saved instructions as a fresh request, so put the whole job there rather than relying on an earlier conversation.

3. 3

   Step 3: Set the schedule and reporting choice

   Choose a weekly schedule, Monday, and 08:30 in your intended timezone. Read the saved trigger back carefully, including whether the time is morning or evening. Use your own day and time if Monday does not suit your work.

   Choose email, app notification, both, or neither. Choosing neither still lets you inspect run history. Save the automation, then reopen it and confirm that its instructions and schedule match your written plan.

   Illustrated exampleMake the trigger and delivery choice explicit

   Every weekMonday · 08:30America/Toronto

   MTWTFSS

   After each run

   ✓App○Email○Both○Neither

   Confirm the saved day, morning time, and timezone after saving.

4. 4

   Step 4: Run it once now

   Use Run now to test the saved instructions without waiting for Monday. Open the resulting run and read the conversation.

   A passing result includes exactly your three supplied tasks, no invented status updates, and one prioritization question. If it claims to have checked your inbox or calendar, edit the instructions to require a checklist only and explicitly state that no connected business data is being used. Run now again.

   Illustrated exampleUse Run now to check the saved instructions

   Test without waitingRun now

   Check the result

   • ✓Exactly the 3 supplied tasks
   • ✓No invented status updates
   • ✓One prioritization question

   !

   Claims to check email or a calendar? Tighten the instructions, then run the test again.

   ↻

5. 5

   Step 5: Check a scheduled run

   After the chosen time, open the automation’s run history. Check that a new run appears and contains the same kind of useful result as the manual test.

   If there is no run, inspect whether the automation is paused, whether the saved day and timezone are correct, and whether a run shows an error. If the run exists but no notification arrived, check the reporting choice separately. A missing notification and a missing run are different problems.

6. 6

   Step 6: Keep, adjust, or pause the job

   After one scheduled run, decide whether the checklist arrived when it was useful. Edit the timing or instructions if needed, and repeat Run now after any material instruction change.

   Pause the automation when you no longer need it, and verify its saved state. Resume when you want it to run again. Delete it only when you want to remove the job. If you later add an email trigger, treat that as a new workflow with its own account access and test messages.

Create a scheduled automation called [name]. Run it [day and recurrence] at [time and timezone].

On every run, return a short planning checklist containing only these tasks: [task 1], [task 2], [task 3]. Add one question that helps me choose which task to do first.

This is a reminder checklist, not a report about my business systems. Do not claim to have read emails, bookings, quotes, or calendars. Do not send messages to anyone else.

Reporting preference: [email, app notification, both, or neither]. Confirm the saved schedule and timezone so I can check them before relying on the next run.