I do have automations. Quite a few actually. I have 22 set up on each board. We have emails that go out anywhere from every week, to every month, 2 months, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. I have a group set up for each one, and then automations to send each email to the proper group depending on the time frame. I will share a screenshot of the template I created.
Also, as far as the large picture goes. I use the dashboards and the my week calendar. I have an automation set for if something is not scheduled to go out 2 days before the due date, I get an email from monday saying to get it done.