The 30-second data cleaning hack ⌛

Introducing Delimited (your new Excel bff)

June 12, 2025

Hey there! I celebrated Miss Excel’s fifth anniversary last week, and my heart couldn’t be fuller. 💚 I’m beyond grateful to be on this journey making tech skills fun for you! 

Speaking of? We’ve got a free Excel class on Data Cleaning and VBA! In just one hour, you’ll get a rundown on Excel’s hidden tools to solve data problems with ease, a slew of beginner-friendly VBA tips that’ll shave hours off your weekly workload, and so much more. 

Ready to join the party?

30 Seconds in Excel to Save an Hour ⏱️

POV: You’re staring at a spreadsheet where someone decided to cram states, transaction IDs, cost, quantity, and total all in one column (why are people like this? 🫠). 

Instead of spending the next hour manually retyping everything into separate columns, here’s an Excel trick that’ll do the heavy lifting for you in just 30 seconds: 

Step 1) Select the column 

Step 2) Under your Data tab, select Text to Columns 

Step 3) Click Delimited 

💡 Excel Vocabulary: A “delimiter” is a character or symbol that separates data within a text string (such as a space, comma, semicolon, etc.)

Step 4) Click Next 

Step 5) Check the Space checkbox 

Step 6) Click Next and then Finish

Why it works: When you select “Delimited” and check “Space,” you’re giving Excel a simple instruction ➡️ “Every time you see a space in this text string, treat it as a divider and put what comes after it into a new column.” 

The result? A 60-minute Excel task only took 30 seconds. I’ll dance to that! 💃

The Free Excel Class You Won’t Want to Miss 🌟 

Tired of wrestling with spreadsheets that seem determined to drive you up the wall?

I’m here to tell you: Excel doesn’t have to be a battle! When you know the right moves, it can actually be your Swiss Army Knife, helping you save hours a week, impress your boss, and land a promotion (all in one nifty tool 😉 ).

Ready to learn those moves? Join my free Excel class on Data Cleaning and VBA! As past attendees will tell you, this isn’t your typical webinar—you’ll actually have fun while learning skills that make a real difference in your daily work.

“Why Are You Avoiding This?” 🤔

Have you heard of a procrastination journal? 

I stumbled on this idea while browsing r/productivity (yes, I procrastinate by reading about productivity 🙃). The concept is simple: Anytime you catch yourself procrastinating, jot down: 

  • What you’re supposed to be doing 

  • What you’re doing instead 

  • How you feel in that moment 

It can feel a little pointless at first (like, why am I journaling about being unproductive instead of just…being productive? 🤣), but this habit can be super effective. 

Here’s why: As organizational psychologist Adam Grant explains, procrastination is not a time management problem. It’s an emotion management problem. 

We don’t struggle to complete tasks because we’re disorganized. We struggle because certain tasks surface uncomfortable emotions: boredom, frustration, stress, or self-doubt (to name a few). 

Journaling helps you spot these emotional patterns. And once you spot them, you can actually do something about them. For example: 

  • If you procrastinate going on sales calls because you feel anxious ➜ Write out a script to practice beforehand. 

  • If you procrastinate doing financial reports because you feel overwhelmed ➜ Break up the task into bite-sized chunks.  

A procrastination journal doesn’t just show you what you’re avoiding. It shows you why. And that “why” holds the answer to helping you get more done on time.

Pro tip: Upload your journal into ChatGPT and ask it to spot patterns in how you work! (Using pen and paper for your journal? No sweat. Just snap a photo, and ChatGPT will transcribe it for you automatically. 😉)

Thanks for reading! Before we part ways, here’s an encouraging reminder from bestselling author James Clear: 

Sometimes all you need is just a few minutes to get back on track. And signing up for my free Excel class can help you do exactly that when it comes to mastering Excel. 💚

Stay Exceling,

Kat