Scheduling & Recurrence
Most rules run the moment a matching email arrives. But some automations should only be live for a while — like a vacation auto-reply — or should run some time after an email lands. MailPrism handles both.
This page covers three related ideas:
- Rule schedules — when a rule is allowed to run (a date range, or certain hours).
- Auto-disable — turning a scheduled rule off automatically when its window ends.
- Delayed & recurring actions — running an action later, not instantly.
Rule schedules
A schedule limits when a rule is active. There are two kinds.
| Schedule | What it does | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| Date range | The rule is active between a start date and an end date (in your timezone) | Vacation / out-of-office responders |
| Time-based | The rule is active during — or outside — set hours on chosen days of the week | After-hours responders |
You don't hand-build these schedules on a normal rule. MailPrism sets them up for you when you turn on an auto-responder — the Vacation responder creates a date-range schedule, and the After-hours responder creates a time-based schedule. You'll find these under Settings → Auto-responder.
Date-range schedule (vacation)
When you set a vacation responder's start and end dates, MailPrism only runs the auto-reply rule between those dates. Outside the window, the rule sits idle — no replies go out. Everything is evaluated in the timezone you choose, so "ends June 30" means the end of June 30 where you are.
Time-based schedule (after-hours)
An after-hours responder is active outside your business hours. You set:
- Business hours — a start time and end time (for example,
09:00–17:00). - Work days — which days those hours apply (for example, Monday–Friday).
- Timezone — so the hours track your local clock.
The responder then replies only to mail that arrives outside those hours.
Auto-disable when the window ends
A scheduled rule can turn itself off once its end date passes, instead of just going dormant. This keeps your Rules list honest: a finished vacation responder shows as disabled, not lingering as "on."
Auto-disable means you won't come back from vacation to find the responder quietly still armed. When the end date passes, the rule flips to off on its own.
Delayed actions
Instead of scheduling the whole rule, you can delay a single action. In the rule editor, click the clock icon next to any action to add a delay.
A delayed action waits a set amount of time before it runs:
- Wait a number of minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months.
- Then run the action (apply a label, send a reply, archive, and so on).
Cancel if replied
When you add a delay, you also get a "then…" option that can cancel the action if there's a reply before it runs. This is what makes polite follow-ups safe:
| Cancel if replied | The delayed action is skipped when… |
|---|---|
| You reply | you respond in the thread first |
| The sender replies | the other person responds first |
| Anyone replies | either side responds first |
Example: Wait 3 days, then draft a follow-up — but cancel it if anyone replies.
This pairs perfectly with follow-up and nudge automations. See Nudges & reminders.
Recurring actions
Some automations repeat on a cadence — daily, weekly, monthly — rather than running once. MailPrism's auto-responders use this internally to keep replying for the length of your vacation or every evening after hours, without you re-arming anything.
Recurring schedules power features like auto-responders and follow-up bumps. You configure those features directly — you don't hand-write a recurrence rule in the normal rule editor. For repeating follow-ups, set up an auto-responder (Settings → Auto-responder) or a nudge flow rather than a one-off rule.
Putting it together
A vacation responder is the clearest example of all of these working as one:
- You pick start and end dates → a date-range schedule.
- The responder repeats its reply for the whole window → recurrence.
- A short response delay lets Gmail classify the email first → a delay.
- When your end date passes, the rule auto-disables → auto-disable.
→ Learn the basics: Conditions · Actions · Best practices