Have you ever found yourself really wanting to book a conference room at high school, only to discover that all rooms, even the worst ones, are already taken? I certainly have—and this problem itself is exactly what began my journey into automation. Tired of always losing the best rooms to those lightning-fast early bookers, I decided it was time to take control of the situation with a little quick Python scripting.

How it works

Every Monday morning, at a time where the majority of people in the world still sleep, the school management sent out an email with a constant subject line, stating that the rooms are available to book again for the coming week.

To detect when this email was received, I leveraged the Gmail API to monitor my inbox. The bot was programmed to listen for that specific email subject, so that the moment the email arrived, it knew it was time for some action.

With the trigger in place, the bot then switched to use the Google Sheets API. Since our booking system was managed through a shared Google Sheet, the bot quickly updated the relevant cells to secure my spot in the prime conference room—all in the blink of an eye.

The project was made in Python as this was the easiest way for me to integrate the action steps.

The takeaway

In a world where every minute counts, automating boring tasks not only frees up valuable time but also allows us to focus on what truly matters. The bot that I built is more than just a tool—it’s a testament to the power of creative problem-solving and the practical application of technology.