Day 2: Zapier – Gmail → Sheets (Zapier-gmail-sheets.php)

Day 1: LLMs & Prompt engineering

You learned to craft precise instructions

Day 2: Zapier Gmail→Sheets

Apply structured thinking to automate real workflows

Bridge: The same clarity you used in prompts (Day 1) now defines trigger conditions & data mapping in Zapier.

📘 What is Zapier & why Gmail → Sheets?

📌 Definition

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that connects two or more apps — it moves information between them automatically. A “Zap” is your automated workflow. In this lesson, you build a Zap that listens for incoming Gmail messages (or specific labels) and instantly adds a row to Google Sheets with details like sender, subject, and date.

Analogy: Think of it as a digital assistant. Every time an email arrives (like a customer order), the assistant copies the important parts into a spreadsheet — without you lifting a finger. Day 1 taught you how to instruct an AI; today you instruct a robot (Zapier) with the same step-by-step thinking.

1. Trigger

New email in Gmail (inbox / label)

2. Action

Create row in Google Sheets

💼 Real-world use cases

Lead capture

Contact form emails → sheet for sales follow-up

Support tickets

emails to support@ → log priority, description

Invoice tracker

invoices sent to finance → spreadsheet with amounts, due dates

Each scenario saves hours of manual copy-paste and reduces errors.

⚙️ Build your first Zap: Gmail → Sheets

We'll create a Zap that adds a row every time an email arrives with the label “Leads”.

Prepare your accounts & spreadsheet

Make sure you have:

A Gmail account (free / workspace)
A Google Sheets document with headers: Timestamp, Sender, Subject, Body snippet
Zapier account (free tier works for this Zap)

Spreadsheet setup example: create column A: Date, B: From, C: Subject, D: Preview.

Create a new Zap & choose Gmail trigger

In Zapier dashboard: Create Zap → search for Gmail → select "New Email" or "New Email Matching Search" (if you want a label/filter).

Pro tip: Use “New Email Matching Search” and set query label:leads to only process specific emails.

Connect Gmail account & test trigger

Authorize Zapier to access your Gmail (read-only). Click Test trigger – Zapier will fetch a recent email sample.

This sample is used to map fields later.

Set up Google Sheets action

Add a new step: search for Google Sheets → choose "Create Spreadsheet Row".

Connect your Google Drive account and select the exact spreadsheet and worksheet you prepared.

Map email data to columns

For each column header, insert the corresponding field from Gmail:

Timestamp → 1. Received date (from Gmail)

Sender → From [email]

Subject → Subject

Body snippet → Body plain (first 100 chars)

Tip: Use "Formatted Text" if you need to combine fields – similar to prompt engineering (Day 1).

Test & publish

Send a test email to the watched label, then click Test & Continue. Zapier will show you the row that would be created. If it looks correct, Publish the Zap.

✅ Success: Every future email with label "leads" will instantly appear in your sheet.

Field mapping example

Sheet column

Gmail field (Zapier variable)

A: Date

{{received_at}}

B: From

{{from_email}}

C: Subject

{{subject}}

D: Preview

{{body_plain|truncate(100)}}

🛠️ Pro tips & troubleshooting

Using "New Email" trigger without label → every email fills sheet (spam too!)
Not testing with a real email sample → mapping errors
Column headers with spaces → mismatch in mapping

Use search trigger: label:leads OR subject:"Order" (reuses Day1 prompt logic!)
Always perform trigger test & action test before publish
Keep headers simple: timestamp, sender

Connection to Day 1: writing a precise Gmail search query is just like engineering a prompt — you specify what you want (subject, label, from) to avoid noise.

Practice makes permanent

Lead logger

Create a Zap that watches for emails from "[email protected]" and logs them into a sheet named "Website leads".

Support triage

Add a second action (e.g., send Slack message) when high-urgency subject contains "URGENT".

Enrichment

Use Formatter by Zapier to extract domain from email and store it in separate column (advanced).

Each exercise reinforces trigger selection, mapping, and multi-step Zaps.

📚 External resources & further reading

Day 2: you've automated Gmail → Sheets

✔ Understood Zapier's trigger → action logic
✔ Built a real Zap with Gmail and Google Sheets
✔ Mapped fields correctly
✔ Connected search query thinking (Day 1) to Zapier filters