Aim high

Also, how to keep your Excel data squeaky clean

November 10, 2022

Hello, hey, hi! ✨ It’s early November, which means we’re more than 80% done with 2022. 😱 How has this year panned out for you? If you feel blah about it, don’t stress. As Bill Gates once said, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Don’t forget that small changes in one year can mean big changes in 10.

Keep Your Excel Data Squeaky Clean

The only thing more satisfying than a deep cleaning day? Being finished with a deep cleaning day. 🧺

It’s that one day of the week (or, let’s be honest, every other week) dedicated to scrubbing, polishing, and decluttering your space. It’s so gratifying that entire subreddits and TikTok communities (welcome to CleanTok, which has 55 billion views and counting) have sprung up to celebrate cleanliness.

Here’s my petition to start #ExcelCleanTok. It’s time we celebrate tidying up our Excel sheets just as we do tidying up our homes. 🧹

Sure, all that repeated pressing of “copy” and “delete” isn’t particularly fun, especially if your data is full of blank spaces like the example below.

And don’t get me started on that feeling when your boss hands you an EOD deadline to clean up the entirety of the company’s data.

But I've got a tip for you that’ll help you tidy up your data by removing any blank rows or cells. And I promise it’s as satisfying as when Clorox melts away that bathroom mildew. 💪

Step 1️⃣: Press CTRL + G and click on ‘Special.’

Step 2️⃣: Press K + Enter (this automatically selects ‘Blanks’) and select ‘Ok.’

Step 3️⃣: Press CTRL - (minus) and click ‘Shift cells up.’

Boom! Your data now has zero blanks or white spaces—it looks like Mr. Clean himself scrubbed your worksheet. And it took no time at all! But if your boss asks, tell them this will take *all* day and that you’ll circle back with them later. 😉

Are you an Excel wizard, OutLook aficionado, or PowerPoint genius? We’d love to share your tips or tricks in an upcoming newsletter! You can submit here.

Aim Higher Than You Think You Need To

It was 2004, and entrepreneur Sarah Blakely was about to jump off a cliff.

Blakely was a contestant in Richard Branson’s show, The Rebel Billionaire: Branson’s Quest for the Best. The show took 16 entrepreneurs around the world to see who was most qualified to become president of Virgin Airlines.

That’s how Blakely ended up on a cliff ledge in Africa, staring down the Zambezi River from a 360-foot drop. The goal? To jump into the arms of a partner who was dangled above the gorge. If she failed, she’d fall hundreds of feet (I’m sweating just typing this).

Contestants jumping into their partners' arms above the Zambezi River

Contestants jumping into their partners' arms above the Zambezi River

Blakely was one of the few contestants who managed to leap into their partner’s arms. In her MasterClass, she mentioned it’s because she “aimed high.”

Instead of shooting for her partner’s chest, she aimed above their head. This clever calculation adjusted for gravity’s effects, so she landed in her partner’s arms. 👏

This advice from Blakely (who today is a billionaire and among the world’s most respected entrepreneurs) extends past bungee jumping. The ability to aim high is an important marker of success, and it’s a reason why I was able to grow Miss Excel:

📈 Bigger goals = less competition. As Tim Ferriss puts it, when you “overestimate the competition, no one shows up” to challenge you. By setting sky high goals, you compete with fewer people because few believe they’re capable of hitting those milestones!

⭐️ It’s a motivational North Star. Big goals don’t just motivate you—they light you up. That’s the idea behind what Jim Collins and Jerry Porras call BHAGs, or Big Hairy Audacious Goals. They give you a sense of purpose and direction.

🏃‍♀️You’ll achieve more. You know the saying “shoot for the moon because even if you miss you’ll land among the stars?” Is it corny? Yes. Is it true? Also yes.

The goal isn’t to place yourself in a mental pressure cooker (that’s a one-way ticket to burnout). Instead, it’s to push yourself, foster creativity, and dream bigger.

I’ll let the the one and only Michelangelo close me out:

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.”

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Although we’re closing in on the end of 2022, it’s not too late to spin it in your favor.

That’s because it takes an average of 66 days to form a habit, according to a 2009 study from Phillippa Lally at the University of London. This gives you enough time to build new behaviors, such as reading more or swapping coffee for matcha (which is what I’m currently tackling). ☕️

Stay Excelent,

Kat