August has a way of sneaking up on you. One week it's still summer, the next there's a syllabus in the group chat and a school supply list longer than your arm. A lot of the back-to-school scramble is really just logistics: schedules, reminders, weather, photos, all needing to land somewhere you'll actually see them before the day catches up with you.
IFTTT (If This Then That) connects the apps you're already using for school stuff, so none of that has to live in three different places at once. Pick a trigger, like a new event landing on the school calendar or today's forecast coming in, and pair it with an action somewhere else, like adding it to the family calendar or pinging your phone. Build it once, and it keeps running every time that trigger happens again.
Get inspired with these 10 prompts to save you time and help you start the school year more organized.
Type one into IFTTT and try it today.
Get the school schedule onto one calendar
Right now the schedule probably lives in three places: the school portal, a class app, and whatever's scribbled on the fridge. None of those talk to the calendar your household actually checks. These two fix that without retyping a single date.
Most school portals also publish an iCal link you can subscribe to directly, which pulls events onto your calendar without needing an Applet at all. If yours doesn't, or the schedule's stuck in a PDF, you can upload it and have IFTTT's MCP add every date to your calendar for you.
1. Sync the school calendar the moment it's added
"When a new event shows up on my iOS Calendar, add it to my Google Calendar too."
Add the field trip, the half-day, the parent-teacher conference to one calendar, and it shows up on the other. If one parent's on iPhone and the other's all-in on Google, this is the difference between everyone knowing about early dismissal and one of you finding out at pickup.
2. Turn homework reminders into calendar blocks
"Add any new Apple Reminders item to my iOS Calendar automatically."
Reminders are great at catching a task the second you think of it. They're less great at showing you when everything's due relative to everything else. This puts every reminder (a project due Friday, a permission slip, band practice) right next to the rest of the week, so the pileup is visible before the night before.
Make the mornings less of a fight
Most of the morning friction is stuff that doesn't need a human handling it: waking up, remembering what has to go in the bag, checking the weather before heading out the door.
3. Wake up to light instead of an alarm
"Turn on my Philips Hue lights every school morning at 6:45AM."
A blaring alarm is a rough way to start a 6:45 wake-up, for a kid or an adult. This eases the room into daylight instead, so the first few minutes feel less like an ambush.
4. Get a standing reminder to pack the backpack
"Add a recurring Todoist task every school morning."
Some things need repeating until they're automatic, and packing the backpack usually isn't there yet by day three. This adds the same task to your list on whatever weekdays and time you pick, so it's sitting in Todoist every morning instead of only on the days someone remembers to write it down.
5. Get the full forecast every morning
"Send me today's Weather Underground forecast every morning at 6:30AM."
This one's for the walk-to-school and bus-stop crowd specifically. A quick look before anyone's out of bed settles the jacket-or-no-jacket debate before it starts.
Close up once everyone's actually gone
Between drop-offs and pickups, the house sits empty more often than you'd think during the school year. This runs in the background, so nobody has to remember to check.
6. Close the garage once everyone's actually gone
"Close my MyQ garage door once everyone in the house has left."
Set the home area once with Group Location, and the garage closes itself the moment the last person in the group actually leaves, instead of sitting open a little too often once everyone's out the door.
Keep phones quiet where it counts
Whether it's a kid heading into first period or you heading into drop-off traffic, the goal's the same: silence at the right moment, without anyone remembering to do it.
7. Mute the ringer automatically, right at the building
"When I arrive at school, mute my Android phone ringtone."
This one skips the reminder step. Draw a circle around the school on a map once, and the phone handles the rest from there.
Stock up, and don't lose the memories
The school year runs on supplies that run out faster than expected and moments that go by fast.
8. Keep a running list of what's running low
"Add anything I type in a Note widget to a Google Sheet school supply list."
Glue sticks, folders, the one pencil brand that's always sold out. You rarely notice you're low at your desk. Type it in from wherever you are, and it lands as a new row on a list you can pull up at the store.
9. Back up the first-day photos automatically
"Save every new iOS Photos photo to my Google Drive."
The first-day-of-school photo, the new-backpack photo, the missing-two-front-teeth school picture. A full phone or a lost device shouldn't be the thing standing between you and this year's photos.
Protect homework time
Once the actual sitting-down-to-do-it part starts, the last thing anyone needs is a phone lighting up every five minutes.
10. Block off an hour of quiet with one tap
"Press a Button widget to schedule an hour of Do Not Disturb on my Google Calendar."
Tap the widget once, and the next hour turns into a Do Not Disturb block on the calendar automatically. Whatever would've popped up during that hour just waits, instead of pulling anyone out of a math problem to check a notification.
For the forever learners
School might be over, but the habit of learning something new doesn't have to be. These two are bonuses, not part of the ten, for anyone who never really stopped being a student.
Bonus: get one new thing to learn, every single day
"Email me new RSS feed items matching '10 Things You Need To Know This Morning.'"
This one's built around Business Insider's daily roundup column, though it'll work with any feed and phrase you swap in. Skip the browsing, and the day's headlines land in your inbox each morning instead.
Bonus: get a weekly stack of new books to consider
"Send me a weekly email digest of the top posts from Reddit's book subreddit."
If r/books already lives in your saved tabs, this turns the scrolling into one digest a Friday night, so new recommendations show up without you going looking for them.
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Email new '10 Things To Know This Morning' articles
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Get a weekly email digest with the top posts from Reddit's book subreddit
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Pick one and try it this week
Ten prompts, plus two bonuses, is a lot to take in during a month that's already full. Start with whichever one solves this week's actual problem, whether that's a calendar that doesn't match reality or a kid who's genuinely going to forget the umbrella.
Type it in your own words, and IFTTT builds it right there.
Start your free trial and get the school year off on the right note.
