Break the rules

And how to use Excel abbreviations FTW

Hey you! 🎃 In honor of Halloween, a fun fact: Way back when, trick-or-treaters could expect fruit, nuts, coins, and trinkets—but not candy. It wasn’t until the 1950s that marketers realized they could position their sweets as trick-or-treats that they became a Halloween staple. Fast-forward to today, the U.S. consumes 600 million pounds of candy a year. That’s six Titanics of candy. 😱

Abbreviations in Excel FTW 

If you’re an iPhone user (me ✋), I’m sure you’ve experienced this. You’re about to meet up with a pal and you send them the regular “omw” only for Apple to autocorrect to a slightly over excited “On my way!”

At times, autocorrect can be more of a nuisance than a helping hand. 😅 But in Excel, we can set up our own custom list of abbreviations so they work for (not against) us. 

If you find yourself repeatedly typing names of clients, places, or statuses, then using abbreviations is the time-saving Excel tip for you. 

For example, let’s say you’re managing a project at work (shout-out to all to my product managers reading this 👀). 

You’re responsible for monitoring the project’s status and tracking who’s working on what. 

You could manually update each project status by typing “Not Started,” “In Progress,” “Ready for Review,” etc. Or you could save yourself time and set up a custom list of abbreviations. Here’s how. 

Step 1: 

For Mac Users: Go on the Menu bar of your computer and click “Excel” > “Preferences.” 

For PC Users: Click on “File” in the home ribbon and then select “Options.”

Step 2: For Mac Users: Select “AutoCorrect.”For PC Users: Scroll down to “Proofing” and from there, click on “Autocorrect Options.” 

Step 3: Type your desired abbreviation. In our case, we’ll replace “NS” with “Not Started.” Once you’re done typing, click “Add.” You can add multiple abbreviations before exiting out of the window!

Step 4: Type “NS” into a cell in your worksheet and it’ll automatically switch to “Not Started.”

You can add abbreviations for the rest of your project statuses as well as team member names or task descriptions. Now the question is: What will you do with your reclaimed time? 

LMK if you have any Excel tips, tricks, or questions. We’d love to feature you in a future newsletter! 🤩

Break the Rules

“What's your social media strategy to generate five or six figures in revenue per month?” 

It was in the middle of an interview with Thinkific when they asked me about my secret sauce to successfully growing online. 🥫

You’d think my answer would include an elaborate content calendar. A detailed hashtag strategy. A reservoir of scheduled posts. But the truth is—I get visions in my meditations of what will go viral, and then I run to my laptop to create the content. 

Yes, really. 🙃

While this answer might make social media managers break into a sweat, it works because it breaks the rules. 

In reality, you don’t always need a “right way” of doing things. But over time, we become so saddled by norms, traditions, and societal expectations that we forget we have room to experiment. 

While certain rules are integral for a functioning society (don’t cut in line, always scoop your dog’s 💩), others are malleable and open to interpretation.   

I’m not advising you to get reckless! But if you’re trying to make big things happen, you’ll probably need to defy the norms and be daring.

Positive rule-breaking can look like… 

☕️ You spot your dream job. Instead of submitting a cover letter, you create a website that explains why you’re a great fit (like how Nina Mufleh did for Airbnb!).

👠 You want to set up a company but people say you first need an LLC, website, and product. Instead, you set up a Kickstarter to see if people are willing to buy—and aim to get orders before you have an actual product.

📃 A job requires five years of experience. Instead of pre-rejecting yourself, you apply anyway because you know you have the skills required to succeed in the position. 

It’s important to remember that lots of rules are made up or self-imposed. Consider the idea that you can’t start a sentence with “because” or that you’ll need to follow a “strict social media strategy” to grow (calling myself out here 👀). 

In reality, some rules can be bent pretty far before anyone thinks they’re about to break. You have the power to (responsibly) mold them in your favor to get to where you need to go. 

There’s one simple thing you can do that makes you 42% more likely to achieve your goals. Drumroll please… 🥁

Write things down. 

If you’re looking to get anything done—from that small item on your to-do list to that high-level goal—writing it down increases your odds of success. It’s by detailing our game plan that we identify and take the actionable steps to make it a reality. ✍️

Stay Excelent, 

Kat