The formula that gives you back your afternoon ☀️

Hi there! First off: Thank you SO much to everyone who gave feedback on the title for my upcoming book! 📖 I’d love to ask for your help one more time (you’re too good at this not to include you 😂). 

We’re getting this close to crowning a winner, and I’d love to know: 

Thank you again for your feedback! This community is the best. 💚

Stop Counting On Your Fingers 🖐️

Raise your hand if you’ve ever manually counted data only to immediately forget your answer. 🙋 Truly the spreadsheet equivalent of losing your keys after you just had them (except this time your boss is waiting 🙃). 

Here’s an example: you’ve got a list of applicants—each one tagged as Pending, In Progress, or Completed—and your boss wants a headcount. 

Instead of counting one by one…

…let’s use COUNTIF! It takes about 30 seconds: 

Done! And if you want everything that isn’t completed? Simple—just put a “<>” in front of your criteria. That gives us =COUNTIF(C8:C23,”<>Completed”) 

The best part? When you update your data, the formula updates automatically too! 

More of a visual learner? Head to my Instagram to watch this tip in action (and save it for later!).

Your Brain Deserves a Toothbrush Too 🧠

For most of my life, I avoided meditation. I assumed it was for woo-woo spiritual people who had unlimited time, zen thoughts, and only wore flowing linen trousers. 🤣

But in 2020, I finally gave meditation a shot after stumbling on To Be Magnetic by Lacy Phillips. For the first time in years, my mind had room to breathe—and as the mental fog lifted, I got tons of creative ideas for Miss Excel. 

I realized that meditation is not about having a blank mind. Your mind thinks the way your heart beats. It’s automatic! Just like you can't stop your heart from beating, you can't stop thoughts from coming. 

But what you can do is choose which ones to click into and which ones to let pass.

Another way to see it? Meditation is mental hygiene. If you were to skip brushing your teeth for a month, you wouldn’t be surprised if things felt gross in there. 🙃  But we’ll let our minds collect stress, notifications, and old conversations—then wonder why we can’t focus!  

Meditation clears the mental clutter (or “plaque” as I see it 🦷) so your nervous system has room to reset. And that shows up as better focus, cleaner decisions, and the ability to handle pressure without immediately folding. 

Give your brain a rinse! It deserves one. 🪥

P.S. This life tip came from my new Instagram account! Follow along for more tips on meditation, productivity, and all things energy management. ✨

• Color-code your Outlook emails in 30 seconds. 🎨

• Messy Excel data giving you a headache? This tip is your Tylenol. 💊

• Don’t watch this Excel tip (unless you want to impress your boss). 👀

• The Copilot trick that shrinks a two-hour task into just 20 seconds. 

• My top seven Claude tips after working 5+ years in consulting. 🙌

Thanks for being here! Don’t forget to vote on the title of my upcoming book (see the top of the newsletter!) if you haven’t already! I appreciate you more than you know. 💚 

Stay Exceling,

Kat