We address an energy-efficient scheduling problem for practical multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems with stringent execution-time requirements. Optimal user-group scheduling is adopted to enable timely and energy-efficient data transmission, such that all the users' demand can be delivered within a limited time. The high computational complexity in optimal iterative algorithms limits their applications in real-time network operations. In this paper, we rethink the conventional optimization algorithms, and embed machine-learning based predictions in the optimization process, aiming at improving the computational efficiency and meeting the stringent execution-time limits in practice, while retaining competitive energy-saving performance for the MISO system. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method, i.e., optimization with machine- learning predictions (OMLP), is able to provide a time-efficient and high-quality solution for the considered scheduling problem. Towards online scheduling in real-time communications, OMLP is of high computational efficiency compared to conventional optimal iterative algorithms. OMLP guarantees the optimality as long as the machine- learning based predictions are accurate.