3 life-changing books

Hey, you! 🦃 Thanksgiving is around the corner, which means I won’t be in your inbox next Thursday. So, what are you grateful for this year? For me, it's the road trip I took with several pals through Scotland this October. It was truly something else. ✨

Why Your Zeros in Excel Keep Ghosting You

If you’re out and about in the dating world, there’s a solid chance that someone has ghosted you—or you’ve ghosted someone (don’t worry, I’m not judging!). 

If you have been ghosted, you’re not alone! A 2018 study found that a quarter of its 1,300 participants had been ghosted by a partner. 💔

At least our Excel worksheets would never do that to us, right? 

Unfortunately, wrong—thanks to zeros in Excel. 🙄 If you’ve ever tried to input leading zeros, you might’ve noticed they vanish in a blink of an eye. 

The good news: This annoying problem has an easy two-step fix! Which is far fewer steps than it took to delete all traces of your situationship from your social media. 😉

This solution is best for when you’re logging information such as phone numbers, zip codes, or social security numbers and don’t need to perform any calculations. 

But let’s say you do need to crank out the calculator. No sweat—you can use a custom number format! To get there, first navigate to the dropdown in the Number tab on the ribbon and select 'More Number Formats.'

From there, go to 'Custom' and insert how many zeros you’d like your numbers to have. 

All done! Now, if you need to make any calculations, Excel will treat the data as numbers (not text), helping you avoid mathematical errors. Phew! 

While we can’t control who ghosts us in our dating lives, it’s nice to know that when it comes to zeros, we can make ‘em stick around. 😌

Do you have an Excel conundrum weighing you down? Hit me with it! I’d love to possibly feature the solution in a future workbook. 

The 3 Books That’ve Changed My Life

Whether you’re a voracious reader or more of an ✨"I’ll wait for it to come to streaming"✨ kind of person, I’m sure you have at least one book that’s helped shape you into the person you are today. 

That’s the power of books. They can change our lives in so many ways. They can be a guide, a beacon of inspiration, or a time machine. Books are also proven to improve mental flexibility, deepen empathy, and reduce stress. Boom! 💥

What’s best about reading is that it’s an active rather than passive activity. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Kat, that’s cute but what do you mean?” I can explain! 

According to the NYT, making time for activities that are “effortful” (active) instead of “effortless” (passive) can make your time feel more abundant and expansive. Because reading requires intention—but is also enjoyable—it energizes you. 

So without further ado, the three books that have changed my life—which I’m sharing in the hope that it inspires you to read over Thanksgiving break. 🤓

Although reading has a *bunch* of health benefits, its capacity to change your life rests on you applying your newfound knowledge. So run over to your local library—you never know which book might just change everything. 

Dear {FirstName} we’ve been trying to reach you about your (investment) vehicles’ extended warranty losses

We’re giving you a final courtesy wake-up call. This is one call you don’t want to send to voicemail (sorry Grandma, can you text next time?). Because with personal portfolios dropping a whopping 44% this year, this is a call to renew your investing plan.

With Masterworks. This unicorn investment platform lets everyday people invest in museum-quality artworks by names like Picasso and Banksy. Not only has contemporary art outpaced the S&P by 131% over the last 26 years, but it also remained resilient through downturns like the dot-com bubble and Great Financial Crisis. 

The only problem? Every offering is limited, and shares can sell out fast. It makes sense when seven of Masterworks’ last eight exits realized a net return of +17.8%.* Seven?! That’s even more than the number of spam calls I get daily…

Fortunately, The Workbook readers can skip the waitlist with this exclusive link.

See important Regulation A disclosures.

• This clip of Lili Reinhart on Jay Chetty’s podcast helped me zoom out and see the big picture of this wild experience we call life.

• Here’s why some of the world’s most confident people (like Beyoncé) create alter egos. 

• Add this Microsoft Teams app and you’ll never look back. You’ve heard about how much we love Office Otter—the productivity tool that makes managing your to-do list simple and efficient. With their new app, you can create tasks for yourself directly from Teams conversations. Check it out.*

• Speaking of reading, Project Gutenberg is a website with over 60,000 public domain eBooks you can download for free! 

• If you’re looking to add some flair to your Word document with stylish lines, check out my mini tutorial! 

• Jay Clouse is projected to earn $300K in 2022 as a creator. 😳 Here are the revenue streams he uses. 

*This is sponsored advertising content.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d love to know—how do you practice gratitude? 

If you’re like most folks, you write down a gratitude list. But according to Dr. Andrew Huberman, the best way to practice gratitude is by receiving or perceiving it. 

This could be listening to a kind letter written about you (receiving) or hearing a story about someone getting help (perceiving). 

Then, distill the content into bullet points—and read your short summary a couple of times a week to stimulate your sense of gratitude. 

The benefits of this practice (increased motivation and decreased anxiety, just to name a couple) are almost too good to be true. Now that’s something to be grateful for. 😌

Keep Excelerating,

Kat