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The lazy person’s guide to auto-numbering 😴

Plus: 3 ways to look confident without saying a word

May 29, 2025

Hey! Did you know Excel worksheets have over 1 million rows? 1,048,576 to be exact. To put that into perspective, YouTuber Hunter Hobbs tried holding down the arrow key until he reached Excel’s last row…and it took him 9 hours and 36 minutes. 

Safe to say he excelled in patience. 🙃

The Lazy Person’s Guide to Auto-Numbering in Excel 😴

Imagine you’re updating your employee directory, which is about to balloon to 54 people after the latest hiring spree…and you’re stuck typing every employee number by hand. 

Whether it’s employee rosters, client lists, or inventory, manually numbering rows is the type of to-do that makes you want to toss that laptop out the window. 🙃 But the good news? 

Excel can update numbering automatically. Here’s how: 

Step 1) Select the cell in which you want your number list to start. Write =SEQUENCE(COUNTA

Step 2) In the same cell, add the column your count is referencing. In our case, that’s (B:B). The second B signals to Excel you’d like to have infinite numbers for the whole column. 

Step 3) Close out your formula. All done!  

The best part? If you keep adding to column B, the function continues to number it for you. 😎

Want to see this tip in action? Check out the video tutorial for a step-by-step walkthrough.

3 Ways to Look Confident Without Saying a Word 💬

Here at Miss Excel, we’re big on hard skills—Excel (obviously), PowerPoint, OneNote, and Power BI, just to name a few. But knowing how to use tools only gets you so far if you don’t have the soft skills to match. 

Enter: ✨ body language ✨

Here’s why this matters: Your words might say one thing, but your body can say another. For example, you might be saying all the right things during your interview. But if you’re hunched over and avoiding eye contact? It tells a different story. 

Here are three competence cues—body language movements that signal confidence—to use in your next interview, sales call, or big presentation, according to Vanessa Van Edwards, the founder of Science of People who’s taught over 400,000 people the power of competence cues ➡️ 

  1. Lower lid flex. This is the tiny eye squint you do when you’re focusing (or trying to read a street sign without your glasses on). If you do this subtly at someone while they’re speaking, it signals you’re dialed in. Just don’t do it too frequently or you’ll look confused. 😅

  2. Neck to shoulder ratio. Shoulders bunched up to your ears = anxiety and stress. Drop your shoulders and tilt your head to seem more confident and relaxed. 

  3. Strategic eye contact. No, you shouldn’t maintain eye contact the entire time (it actually comes off as territorial!). Instead, Vanessa suggests letting your eyes wander as you think aloud, but to make eye contact at the end of your sentence to really make your point. 

While technical skills get you in the room, it’s your body language that helps you own it. 💫

  • Did you know you could pull data from pictures into Excel?

  • The Shift + F5 shortcut in Word is about to become your BFF. 👯

  • Never send the wrong email in Outlook again with this nifty tip. 📨

  • Let’s keep these numbered Excel list vibes going, shall we? 

  • I’m obsessed with this Hogwarts library playlist that’s perfect for deep work sessions!

Thanks for reading! I stumbled on this tweet and felt 👏 seen. 👏 Excel cooperating on the first attempt is just chef’s kiss.

Stay Exceling,

Kat