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The productivity method you never knew you needed

And how to protect your worksheets 🔐

June 01, 2023

Happy June! ☀️ What better way to kick off this new month than by investing in the new you? Join my free Excel and AI tools masterclass (happening today and tomorrow!), where you’ll learn how to ace Pivot Tables, harness ChatGPT, and so much more in just one hour. Let’s make this summer the one where you became the office’s favorite Excel pro. 😎

Pop, Lock, and Drop It (The Spreadsheet)

Learning how to lock your Excel spreadsheets with passwords? Simple but so effective.

Whether you’re an accountant who wants to guard sensitive financial information or an HR manager protecting employees’ personal details, setting up a password is always a safe bet.

Ready? Here’s how to do this in 60 seconds!

Step 1) Select “File” → “Info” 

Step 2) Select the “Protect Workbook” box and choose “Encrypt with Password.” 

Step 3) Enter a password in the password box, and then select “OK.” Lastly, confirm the password in the “Reenter password” box, followed by clicking “OK.”

Now your worksheet is password protected! Just make sure you write down your password somewhere (trust me, your brain isn’t as reliable as you think…speaking from experience 🙃).

And if you lose that sheet of paper?

Looking to expand your team without breaking the budget?

Try looking in the Ocean (pun most certainly intended). 🌊

Oceans embeds dedicated, full-time, offshore operators to help you grow your headcount without the headache. You tell them where it's rocky—they’ll get you a “Diver” to calm the waters.

What makes Oceans different:

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  • Variety of roles—Hire for roles across Sales & Marketing, Finance & Accounting, and Ops & Admin.

  • Competitive rate—Starting at $3,000/month, you’re adding a full-time resource to your team that can add tremendous value to your company.

Interested in learning more? Fill out your information here.

The Sprint and Rest Productivity Method

The productivity space has a favorite piece of advice: taking small but consistent steps over time can deliver big results.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m a huge believer in the power of consistency! But there are other ways to accomplish your goals that are just as efficient.

Introducing the “sprinting then resting” productivity method. 🏃‍♀️ Instead of putting in a little bit of work each day over a long period of time, you put in a lot of work over a short period of time.

This approach works best for projects that are…

  1. Time-sensitive

  2. Require less than 60 hours to finish

  3. Have specific goalposts

For example, I build my online courses by sprinting.

Here’s how: First, I outlined how long creating the course would take. For my latest course, AI With Miss Excel (coming this June! đŸ¤Š), I estimated that with planning, writing, filming, and editing, the whole shebang required 50 hours.

Instead of putting in five minutes a day (which meant I’d finish the project in about two years 🫠), I put in 2 hours a day (bringing us to only 25 days instead).

These periods of intensity followed by rest are a great way to accomplish fixed, time-sensitive projects. But goals that are based on broader lifestyle changes, such as “become a bodybuilder” or “switch career paths” are better suited for those smaller, everyday efforts where you’ll need to commit long-term to see results.

In case you need some inspo on how to rest after sprinting, feel free to steal my go-to recovery plan: a few days in nature, lots of yoga, and definitely no screen time. 😅

Join Me For a Free Meditation Class!

I’m so excited to share that my friend Anna is hosting a free meditation class Tuesday, June 6th, at 7 P.M. EST and I would love to see you there! Here are the details: 🧘‍♀️

About Anna: Anna is a meditation teacher with a transformative meditation program that has been featured on CNBC and in Entrepreneur Magazine. She’s also a mental performance coach for 7-figure business owners.

Event details: In one hour, learn and experience how meditation can help you optimize your day, increase your happiness, and reduce your stress levels.

In this transformative virtual experience, Anna will guide us through three techniques that will help us focus, breathe, and most importantly, be present. The meditation class is open to everyone—regardless of your level of experience!

Quick challenge for you: Hit “Reply” and submit your best Excel tip…but wrong answers only. 👀 In case you’re curious, my submission is to merge cells because it’s way prettier, LOL (if you’re unsure why that’s terrible advice, read this).

I’ll share the best-worst advice next week!

Stay Exceling,

Kat