The laziest way to stack your data 😴

Hi there! Lately, I’ve been binging the r/excel subreddit. I recently stumbled on a goldmine post asking people for their best-kept Excel secrets. Over 570 people commented—but here were my three favorites:  

1. Press F4 to add $ anchors to a formula range. 

2. Press Ctrl + ~ to display all cells with formulas. 

3. Hold Ctrl while dragging the Fill Handle to turn 1, 1, 1 into 1, 2, 3.

If you need me, I’ll be scrolling through r/Outlook, r/Powerpoint, and r/AI. 🤣

The Best Workout for Your Spreadsheet 💪

Imagine you’re running a five-day wellness retreat. In between the morning, midday, and evening workouts, you’ve got a packed schedule for your guests. 

You want to give them a clean list of every exercise across all five days. While you could copy-paste your way through it, that feels like a workout in itself. 😅

The good news is that TOCOL can do the heavy lifting for you! This function takes data spread across multiple columns and stacks it into one column faster than you can say “downward dog.” 

Here’s how it works: 

Bonus: If you left a cell blank (let’s say Day 5 was TBD and you later add Tai Chi), your TOCOL column updates automatically. 

Don’t you just love a spreadsheet this zen? ✨

Compress the Gap Between “Idea” and “Done” ⚡

I was in my childhood bedroom when I heard it. A voice in my head that went: “Wait, what if you made a TikTok about Excel’s LEFT and RIGHT functions to Toosie slide?” 💭

It was 2020, the world was on pause, and a friend half-jokingly suggested I start posting Excel videos on TikTok. I loved the idea, but I wasn’t sure what that could look like. Then, out of left field, that voice chimed in. 

Now, I had two options: 

1. Wait. I could overthink it, over-prepare, and shelf it for “later” when I’d figured out how to use CapCut and TikTok. 

2. Move. Make the video today, and figure it out along the way. 

I chose option two. And that idea? It hit nearly 40K views and was the beginning of Miss Excel as we know her. 🥹 More importantly, it taught me the value of closing the gap between having an idea and acting on it before doubt, procrastination, and a million excuses set up camp. 

The next time an idea finds you—however ridiculous, however half-baked—compress that gap as fast as you can. Start scrappy. Figure it out as you go. And don’t let too much time pass! Because an idea that’s good enough today will always beat a perfect idea you never bring to fruition. ✨

• Who would win in a fight: Claude or ChatGPT? 🥊

• This Excel barcode trick went viral (and it’s easy to see why). 👀 

• Mrs. Dow Jones just dropped her new book, Future Rich Person, and I am obsessed! 🤩 It’s packed with tips on building modern wealth, and it comes with some amazing bonuses if you order now! 

• This two-way XLOOKUP tip will save you a disgusting amount of time. 

• Have you been merging cells the hard way? Let’s find out.

Thanks for reading! Speaking of merged cells? Let’s not forget that they can be the silent killer of sorting and filtering. 🤣

Stay Exceling,

Kat