Are you doing fake work? 🫠

Hey hey! If you’re tired of fumbling around with spreadsheets and never want to see another #REF! again… 🙃 I got you. I’m hosting a free, one-hour session where you’ll learn the ins and outs of XLOOKUP and VLOOKUP so you can automate tasks and save time. Here’s the class schedule: 

• Thursday, November 9th at 12 PM EST 

• Thursday, November 9th at 3 PM EST

• Friday, November 10th at 12 PM EST 

_{None of these times work for you? No problem—you can register for any date to get the replay!} 

Go here to save your seat. I can’t wait to see you there! 😄

XLOOKUP 101 

POV: You’re ready to graduate from being an “Excel newbie.” You know how to use basic functions such as SUM and AVERAGE, enter data, and format cells. It’s time to show your boss you’re capable of more. But…where should you start? 

That’s when LOOKUP functions come into play. 😎

These functions (otherwise known as XLOOKUP and VLOOKUP) help you search for and manage data in larger tables—a key skill to have in Excel. But my favorite function out of the two? XLOOKUP. 

“Cool, but what exactly is XLOOKUP?” 

Glad you asked! XLOOKUP fetches the data you’re looking for. Unlike VLOOKUP, which only searches from left to right, XLOOKUP can look up in any direction. 

This is useful if you’re dealing with a large data set. Say goodbye 👋 to spending dozens of minutes scanning for specific information! 

Here’s an example: Say you have a spreadsheet with a list of countries and their population. Your goal is to surface Italy’s population. 🇮🇹

We’ve just scratched the surface of what XLOOKUP can do! If you’re ready to reach that next level (and really wow your boss), sign up for one of my classes next week. We’ll cover XLOOKUP, VLOOKUP, and more time-saving hacks. 💡

Are You Doing “Fake Work” or “Real Work”? 

Last spring at Miss Excel, things looked great from the outside—steady sales, consistent newsletters, and happy students. But inside? Your girl was feeling a little cluttered. 

Despite being busy and getting 👏 things 👏 done 👏, progress wasn’t happening as fast as anticipated. I was spending time on facets of the business that weren’t my forte, organizing tasks for my assistants, and doubling down on admin (AKA drowning in emails).

Turns out I was focusing on “fake work” instead of “real work.” 

According to productivity expert Grace Marshall: Fake work keeps you busy, but offers little in return. It’s relatively easy to tick off a to-do list (giving you that oh-so-lovely dopamine hit!) but doesn’t necessarily move goals forward. Examples could be…

• Answering every email in your inbox. 

• Tinkering with your landing page until it’s just right. 

• Getting on a “free trial call” with every single inbound lead. 

But the real work? It’s the tasks that truly move you towards achieving your goal. The real work is challenging, involves higher risks, and requires more time before you see any results (no instant gratification here 💔). 

Let’s say your dream is to become a professional content creator. Real work could be: 

• Creating content at a consistent pace. 

• Reaching out to specific brands that are a great fit for your niche and asking them to collaborate. 

• Enrolling in an online course for a specific skill you need to work on (e.g. video editing, storytelling, analytics).

Habits and routines that benefit our wellbeing such as meditation, being in nature, and exercise also fall under the “hard work” umbrella. Remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup! 

“Okay, so I’m doing fake work. What can I do about it?” 

Dr. Susan McGinty, a leadership coach, offers three great approaches: 

1. Delegate It — If it’s not your strong suit, hire someone else to help you! I hired an amazing Chief Marketing Officer for Miss Excel, which gave me so much time to focus on what I’m actually good at. 

2. Automate It — Find yourself doing a lot of repetitive, manual busywork? Chances are, you can automate it. In my case, I created onboarding templates so I didn’t have to create a new one for each new hire. 

3. Discard It — Sometimes, a task just isn’t as important as you think it is. I stopped responding to every single email and the business kept doing just fine. 

This isn’t to say fake work doesn’t have its time and place. But it’s important to ask yourself: “Am I doing this because it’s moving the needle, or because it’s a cozy distraction?”. And once you get your answer, you’ll gain a lot of clarity on what you need to do next. 💫

• Eight Microsoft OneNote tips in 60 seconds (I’ll admit, I didn’t know number six!). 

• The easy way to use XLOOKUP to assign items into buckets.  🪣

• Did you know there are three science-backed ways to make your to-do list as effective as possible? 

• I’m loving the Spotify playlist ‘Big Desk Energy’ (😂) for study sessions. 

• The five invisible scripts that might be stopping you from starting a business.

Thanks for reading! If someone were to ask me, “How do I start a business?!” I’d just tell them this quote from author Todd Henry:

Don’t overthink it: See how you can help others, and then let the momentum build-up (I would’ve never predicted that TikToks on Excel tips would get me here). 😅

Stay Exceling,

Kat