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6 What Nerds Can Teach You About Mastering Excel Formulas 9 How To Master Word & Excel Keyboard Shortcuts in 30 Days.. 15 Excel Marathon Training Excel Shortcuts................................................................ 18
We are constantly bombarded with productivity tips and tricks. They are published in newspapers, TV shows, newsletters and blogs. Productivity tips are everywhere and yet virtually all these tips roll off us like a drop of rain rolls off a window. In fact, there are very few people that strive to continuously become more productive and for a good reason Theres no REAL reason to become productive! This is because productivity only benefits our workplace. If we become more productive at work, it is our employer that reaps the rewards of our improvement. He gets more from us for the same pay. And although you and I are professionals, we are not saints and therefore will not continually strive to become more productive for someone else. But here is the secret to true productivity Adopt one small productivity habit, and then take the time youve saved and invest it in yourself! Even if you save only 10 minutes a day, take these 10 minutes and do something for yourself. Talk to a friend for 10 minutes - every day! Learn how to meditate and spend 10 minutes meditating and relaxing. Make yourself a BIG cup of tea and sip it while you watch the sky.
And be mindful to make this a daily ritual. By improving your productivity and funneling the extra time you saved towards something that makes you happy, you are creating a real reason for yourself to become more productive. Youll be internally motivated to become more productive. Youll look forward to learning new productivity skills and adopting productivity habits. And then, when you learn new productivity skills or adopt new productivity habits, make sure you use at least half of the extra time you created to do something for yourself. Understanding this cycle will not only make you a lot more productive, it will give you something even better greater happiness! I hope youll enjoy and benefit from the rest of this guide, Hadar
Interruptions are the tools of the devil! And our lives are full of them Emails, phone calls, online messaging, spouses and kids. My kids, for example, are fiends (God bless their souls). They have a hellish capacity to interrupt their mom while shes trying to focus. But why are interruptions so disruptive? This is a very important question, and there are two answers:
Swapping
Because we can only focus on one thing at a time, we need to clear our mental processing chip before we can focus on a new task. This means that when we are disrupted, we push all the information that relates to the current task into the back of our minds and fill our active memory with information thats relevant to the interruption. For instance, if my youngest wants me to read him a story while Im working, Ill store the work-related information in the back of my mind and read him the story. Only when he goes away, I can retrieve the work related information and go back to work. The process of retrieving the work-related information and getting back into flow is both time consuming and tiring. This is one of the reasons that after several interruptions, we become so tired we are unable to re-focus on our work.
Reprioritization
At any given time there are dozens of tasks we can be doing. There are bills to pay, house chores to complete and about 20 different things we need to do at work. Every time we stop working on a task, all these unfinished tasks compete for our attention. This is not an optional process. We always mentally re-evaluate our to-do list before choosing to perform a certain task. So every time we are interrupted, we enter this re-evaluation phase. And apart from the fact that the re-evaluation process is a time waster by itself, we often choose to do something different.
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For instance, how many times did you work on a task, get interrupted, and then when you finished handling the interruption, you decided to check your Email? And before you knew it an hour has passed.
This article is probably the most interesting and exciting article in the Excel Productivity Squared series. This is because, in just a minute, I will reveal how VBA geniuses come up with brilliant solutions to programming problems. And I am not talking about small insights either; I am talking about coming up with ideas that will make your co-workers/boss/clients gasp in wonder. So without further ado, here is a first glimpse into the mind of the programming genius.
By systematically reframing problems, we can easily come up solutions. By systematically reframing processes, we can easily find ways to improve them. And so, to come up with a brilliant new solution, all you have to do is apply a set of reframing techniques to a problem or a process until the brilliant idea comes to you. So lets go to the first (and one of the most powerful) reframing techniques
Ted works with over 40 vendors. Each of those vendors manufactures thousands of items. And to top it all, every once in a while the vendors issue new catalogs and update their prices. A database that could completely solve Teds problem would contain more than 100,000 items and Ted would have to hire a full-time employee whose only job would be to keep the database updated.
To sum up
Whenever you are faced with an Excel problem that seems unsolvable or with a process that defies automation try to reframe the problem by asking yourself Can I write a VBA Macro or come up with a formula that will automate a small part of the work but in a way that will create a big productivity increase? Its not a fancy technique, but it has worked wonders for us, and if you use it, it will do the same for you.
When I was younger, just a bad little kid my mama noticed funny things I did - Orin the
Dentist, Little Shop of Horrors. When I was young and just a nerdy little kid, I was really good at solving mathematical equations. So good, that my friends parents took notice and hired me to tutor their kids (my friends). And because they offered a pile of money, I more than happily accepted the challenge. It was then that I noticed a funny thing. I was the best equation solver in class! No kidding A+ in every test. And yet, when I solved an equation I did it one small step at a time. So if you take this equation for instance: 2(x+1)+3 = 7 I would expand the equation (get rid of the parenthesis): 2x+2+3=7 Add the 2 and 3 (on the left side of the equation): 2x+5=7 Subtract 5 from both sides of the equation: 2x=7-5 Make the subtraction on the right side (please keep reading, theres a point to this - I promise): 2x=2 And finally divide both sides of the equation by 2 to arrive to the result: x=1 But for my friends, this was too boring. They couldnt be bothered with the simple steps. They would go from: 2(x+1)+3=7 To: X=1
In one step!!!!! And more often than not, they would go from: 2(x+1)+3=7 To: x=2 This would earn them an F on the exam. This, in turn, provided me with a generous and continuous income stream. You see, all my friends knew how to solve math equations. But because they were in a hurry to solve the equation, they skipped a lot of steps, and since difficult solving equation when skipping steps, they made mistakes.
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I am required to write a formula that will show (for each invoice) the amount of days left until it needs to be paid (assuming that invoices are supposed to be paid within 90 days) and if more than 90 days have passed then I should mark the invoice as Late Payment So, instead of charging ahead and immediately writing the formula in Excel, lets break down the problem first. We need to: 1. Calculate how many days have passed since each invoice was issued 2. Calculate how many days until payment, which is: 90-[days passed since issued] 3. If 90 days or less passed from the issue date then display [days until payment] otherwise display Late payment. Ok, that wasnt so hard; now lets enter this into Excel.
First, an equation to calculate how many days passed since invoice was issued:
Note: The Edate() function turns a date-value into a number which is the number of days since 1/1/1900. And so I use the Edate() function to convert both the current date (today()) and the date on which the invoice was issued into a [days since 1/1/1900] representation. And then all I have to do is subtract the two resulting numbers to get the number of days that have passed since the invoice was issued.
Now, lets calculate how many days till payment (in another column):
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Note: I use the if() function to check if less than 90 days have passed since the invoice was issued. If less than 90 days passed, the if() function returns the days left until payment (Cell E2). If more than 90 days have passed, the if() function returns the value Late Payment.
Finally, lets combine all the separate formulas into one formula:
Summary
When faced with a situation that requires a compound formula, you should start by breaking down the problem into the smallest possible parts, then solve each part separately and only when all the parts are working, combine the little formulas into one.
The truth is theres a simple technique that makes memorizing keyboard shortcuts very easy. In fact, this technique is so effective that within 30 days youll be using the keyboard to perform dozens of functions without as much as glancing at the Ribbon (toolbars and menus for you old timers). But there is one obstacle you need to overcome in order to use this technique - the same obstacle we face every time we try to acquire a new skill, whether it is learning a new set of shortcuts, how to touch-type or how to create more compelling graphs.
If this is difficult, it means that Im learning Not only that, it means that its difficult for everyone. Well, I am going to cross this dip. It might take me a week or even a month, but I am getting across. And when I get through this, I am going to be far more skilled than I am now And to top that, most people will quit here. Which means More competitive itive advantage for me. Yay!
Note: There are excellent ways to make the crossing of the dip easier (which we will discuss in future articles), but simply understanding the dip dynamics is the key to overcoming it.
Later, youll get to a point where you wont even consciously think about what you want to do. Your fingers will automatically activate the functions you need. Granted, there are functions (both in Excel and Word) that cannot be triggered with a menu command. Well discuss the shortcuts for these functions in the next article. For now, just start using the alt key and remember The dip is your best friend!
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A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)
In the previous article we showed that when you try to use a skill youve just learned, it will slow you down for a little bit. We also showed why that slowing down effect causes most people to stop using that skill before it kicks in and actually improves productivity (i.e. the DIP Phenomena). As promised, this article will show you a fantastic (and somewhat Chinese) way to overcome the Dip.
The quick and easy way to learn new skills and overcome Dips
So really - why is learning a new skill so tough? What makes crossing the Dip so hard? Imagine this: youve decided to use shortcuts. Youve started the day with a tank full of willpower and a firm resolution to cross the shortcuts dip. Every time your hand starts inching towards the mouse, you force it back and make yourself use the ALT key to navigate through a labyrinth of menus until you finally find the coveted command. Youll have none of those pointing-and-clicking shenanigans today! By the end of the first hour you are exhausted. It took a lot of willpower just to prevent your hand from automatically grabbing the mouse. By lunchtime, you are at the end of your rope. This whole shortcuts thing is sapping away all your concentration and you havent been able to focus on work. On top of that, youve actually used the mouse a couple of times because you just had to get something done. At this point you are experiencing FAILURE. And that feeling of failure is exactly the thing that makes crossing the DIP so hard. You see, failure is one of the emotions we human beings dread the most. We hate the feeling of failure so much that after a few days of constant failure even the toughest men do whatever they can avoid it (i.e. they QUIT). But is there a way to overcome the feeling of failure? Of course there is just turn it on its head!
3. Add the shortcut key (both the key combination and performed function) to a file called My Excel Shortcuts.xls and place it on the desktop 4. Next time you look for a shortcut key, check My Excel Shortcuts.xls first The reason for maintaining this file is that we usually use the same 10-20 functions all the time. And maintaining a frequently-used shortcuts list greatly reduces the time it takes us to find a shortcut key.
What to do next
Now you have all the tools you need to master shortcuts: a) b) c) d) Remember that the Dip is temporary Create a low-effort training program for yourself (a maximum of 30 minutes each day) Use the ALT key to navigate to Ribbon functions Maintain a frequently used shortcuts list
And thats it. But dont stop there. Your new understanding of the Dip and the low-effort training program can help you learn dozens of new skills. If you truly utilize these two principles, you can learn a new skill every month! Just imagine how that will affect your productivity.