A heart-to-heart on Pivot Tables ♥️

Unearth your dream career

April 17, 2025

Hey! I recently had someone ask if they could use Excel without ever learning Pivot Tables. Here’s my (honest) answer: Excel without Pivot Tables is like a phone without apps—functional but definitely missing the magic. 

Ready to discover that magic for yourself? 🪄Join my free (brand new!) one-hour power-packed session, where you’ll learn my favorite hacks for leveraging Pivot Tables to save you hours each week!  

We’ll cover: 

  • Essential tools to accurately analyze your data 

  • Best practices to make your spreadsheets powerful 

  • Critical foundations to leverage Excel to its full potential 

Spots are limited, so save yours today!

Let’s Have a Heart-to-Heart (On Pivot Tables) ♥️

If you’re still calculating running totals using this method (see below👇), it’s time we have a heart-to-heart: 

Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble! I just want to show you something that’ll make your life much, much easier: Pivot Tables. 

Pivot Tables analyze your entire dataset and automatically perform calculations (like running totals 😉) across thousands of rows in seconds. 

If you’re ready to stop calculating runnings totals the hard way, here’s what to do: 

Step 1) Go to your data. Head to Insert. Select Pivot Table, then click Ok 

Step 2) Add Month to your Rows field 

Step 3) Add Sales to your Values field twice 

Step 4) Right-click on your second sales column and select Show Values As 

Step 5) Select Running Total In 

Step 6) Click Month and then Ok 

Step 7) Rename your headers 

Step 8) Right-click on your two last columns. Select Format Cells and then Accounting. Press Ok 

Done! I’ll cover more time-saving tips just like this one in my free Excel class. Claim your seat today, and I’ll see you soon!

“My Data is Chaos. What Do I Do?!”

We’ve all been there: Opened a spreadsheet only to see row after row of data with no rhyme or reason. 🫠 It’s not long until the panic kicks in:

“How can I possibly make sense of this?” “Is there a way for me to organize this data before my boss sees it?”

The panic stops here! In my (free!) one-hour power-packed session, you’ll learn exactly how Pivot Tables can organize messy data—and we’ll be using the spreadsheet down below as our example!

Ready to learn what our favorite books can teach us about Pivot Tables? 👀 

Unsure What to Do With Your Career? Read This. 💭

Let’s be honest: Most of us are terrible multitaskers (even if we tried to sell it as our “greatest strength” in a job interview once upon a time 😅). It takes up to 23 minutes to refocus after a distraction—but there’s another hidden cost: 

All that mental ping-ponging could prevent you from figuring out what you want from your life and career. 

Here’s why: When you bounce between Slacks, spreadsheets, and social media, your brain goes into damage-control mode. As neuroscientist Earl Miller explains in Johann Hari’s book Stolen Focus:

“Instead of spending critical time really doing deep thinking, your thinking is more superficial because you’re spending a lot of time correcting errors and backtracking.” 

And if you’re always reorienting yourself, you’re not just making work harder—you’re also losing mental space for deeper thinking about your career, purpose, and what truly energizes you. 

That’s what happened to me in 2020. Back then, my 9-5 had me on the move: airport on Monday, client meetings on Tuesday, and deliverables on Wednesday. I was constantly flitting through to-dos. 

Then COVID-19 hit. The travel stopped. And for the first time in years, I had uninterrupted time to reflect. It’s no surprise that the idea for Miss Excel hit me soon after! 

If you're feeling unclear about your professional path, here’s my advice: 

Carve out one hour this week just for thinking big picture. No "productive" tasks (and definitely no phone!). Just you and your thoughts. 

Chances are, the career clarity you're searching for is already in your brain, waiting for you to stop the mental ping-pong game long enough to see it. ✨

Don’t forget to register for my new free Pivot Tables class! 

In just one hour, you’ll learn the Excel skills you need to save at least three hours per week and become confident with your work and your Excel skills. 

Here’s to no longer feeling anxious when opening up Excel! 

Stay Exceling,

Kat