A can’t-miss tip for my non-artists 🎨

Hey there! Just a friendly reminder: We won’t be in your inbox next Thursday as we’ll be spending time with the people we love for Thanksgiving! (And trying to sneak a second helping of sweet potato casserole.)

We hope you have a gratitude-filled holiday. We’re grateful for you and this Excel-ent community. 💚 

See you the week after! 🦃

Leave the Drawing to Picasso 🧑‍🎨

“I’m so not an artist.” 

It was 2016, and my manager asked one of my colleagues to make our sales data more digestible by adding some visuals. When I checked in, I saw they were drawing them…it became obvious that wasn’t exactly “bringing clarity” to anyone. 🫠

Luckily, after a quick huddle, I showed them how to create bar charts right inside your cell. Here it is, so you don’t have to rely on your…um, 🖌️ artistic abilities:

Let’s zoom in on what’s going on here: 

• The REPT function repeats text a set number of times 

• The vertical bar symbol (which shares the key with the backslash) is the character we’re repeating 

• B2 has the number of repeats we want to visualize 

All done! These tiny in-cell charts work anywhere: sales trackers, KPIs, ticket counts, and budget reviews. Perfect for those moments your manager says, “Can you make this easier to understand, like…now?”

P.S. Want to see this tip in action? Watch my video right here!

Zero-Dollar Tweaks, Major Results 📈

Black Friday is around the corner, and there are some great deals out there to boost your productivity (including deals launching next week on Miss Excel courses 👀). But some of my most impactful workspace upgrades? They didn’t cost me a thing. 🪙

Here are a few of my favorite hacks that’ve made the biggest difference in my day-to-day work life (no credit card required) ➡️ 

No need to spend hundreds on a second monitor! Just use Excel’s New Window feature followed by View > Arrange All > Vertical to compare data side-by-side. (Here’s the 18-second video explaining how!) 

This one almost sounds too simple, but moving my desk closer to a window made a huge difference. Natural light reduces eye strain, boosts your mood, and even helps cognitive function. 

If you WFH, you probably have a ton of tangled cables by your desk. Clip binder clips to the edge of your desk and thread your cables through the metal handles. A clean desk = a productive mind. 🔌

Every 20 minutes, look at something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This “panoramic vision” relaxes the eyes and reduces anxiety. (Makes sense—our eyes aren’t evolved for constant close-up screen time!)  

Back when I was first learning Excel, I wrote out a list of my most-used Excel shortcuts and kept it on my desk. It’s so much faster than Googling the same shortcuts over and over. Here are a few of my favorites! 

What free tweak has leveled up your productivity? Reply and let me know! 

• I loved this unconventional life advice. 💡

• 171 people saved this Excel video on creating slanted headers. 📏

• I guarantee you’ll be #teamslicers after you watch this video. 👀

• Excel wizards know this formatting trick. Do you? 🧙

• ”How did you do that?!” – your boss after you learn this PowerPoint tip. 😉

Thanks for reading! Here’s a lovely proverb in case you’re feeling the stress of this time of year. 🌻

"If you feel like you're losing everything, remember that trees lose their leaves every year, yet they still stand tall and wait for better days to come.” 

Stay Exceling,

Kat