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This Excel trick turns a 30-minute task into 30 seconds ⌛

Highlight information in Excel in 4 easy steps!

June 18, 2026

Hi there! “Game-changer.” “Blowing my mind.” “So helpful.” That’s just a sample of what’s been flooding in from the thousands of people who’ve already attended my free live AI and Dashboards class! 🤩

There’s just one time slot left (and it’s only a few hours away!). If you’ve been on the fence, now is your last chance! In just one hour, you’ll learn how to use Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, AI agents, and Excel dashboards to make your reporting faster, clearer, and a lot less painful to build. 

Ready to upgrade your skills and save up to 3+ hours each week? 👀

Color-Code Your Chaos 🚦

POV: It’s a Monday morning and you’re greeted with a fresh batch of customer surveys in your inbox. 📥 “Could you flag every ‘Satisfied’ response in green? Thanks!” reads your boss’ email.   

“This shouldn’t take too long,” you think. But you soon realize that every time you click, the formula bar disappears, meaning you have to pull it up again. And again. 😵‍💫

What if I told you you could get this done in 30 seconds with Conditional Formatting? 👀 Here’s how it works: 

Step 1) Select all your data 

Step 2) Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule

Step 3) Under “Highlight cells with” choose “Specific text” 

Step 4) Select “Beginning with” then type “Satisfied”  

P.S. We select “Beginning with” instead of “Containing” because otherwise Excel would highlight every cell that has the word “satisfied” (meaning our entire spreadsheet would be highlighted!).

Done! That’s a 30-minute task shrunk down to 30 seconds (a 99.8% time savings, if you were curious about the math 🤓). 

P.S. If you’re on a PC, your version of Excel might look a little different. Here’s your video tutorial!

A Whole New Level of Excel Confidence is One Hour Away 😎 

The thing that stops most people from diving into AI and Excel Dashboards? It feels like this gargantuan thing you'd need to clear 40+ hours of your calendar to attempt. So you think, “I just don't have the time for this.” 🫠 

But what if you could make serious progress in just one hour?

This class is the proof! In 60 minutes, you’ll learn how to:

  • Build a report once that updates itself automatically (no more Monday morning rebuilds)

  • Save 3+ hours every week with automations in Copilot, ChatGPT & Claude

  • Spot key trends from your data in seconds, so you're the one with the answers in every meeting

Thousands of people have already taken this class and loved it (don't just take it from me!):

This is the last live class, so be sure to register before doors close in just a few hours! See you there?

You’re Not Lazy. You’re Stuck in Survival Mode. 🫠

“What is wrong with me? Am I just lazy?”

That’s what my friend asked me a few weeks ago. She was going through it—exhausted 24/7, checking Slack every 2.4 minutes, and feeling like no matter how hard she tried, she was still behind at work. 

I told her what I wish someone had told me back in 2021, when Miss Excel got picked up by CNBC, Forbes, and The Verge, and I suddenly couldn’t focus: 

You’re not lazy. You’re stuck in survival mode. 

Here’s what’s happening: when you’re in a chaotic environment, your nervous system starts bracing for danger, even if the “danger” is just an overflowing inbox or surge of eyeballs. 

And a brain that’s bracing for danger has zero interest in sitting down to focus. That’s why you’re distracted! Not because you lack discipline, but because your system is on high alert. 🚨

The fix? Give your body the signal that it’s safe enough to focus. 

Close your laptop for 60 seconds and take a deep breath. Then pick one open loop to close. That one small win gives your nervous system the momentum to re-start and get back on track. 

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

  • I use these 10 data analysis Excel shortcuts almost every day! 📋

  • 1.3M people now know how to use barcodes in Excel. Are you next? 

  • This Excel function turns a 60-minute task into a 60 second one. 🏃

  • 8:26 AM and your Claude usage timed out? Try these three fixes. 👀

  • “This would’ve been a lifesaver in my consulting days,” says a comment under my Excel video! 🔥 

Thanks for reading! It’s a busy day at Miss Excel HQ! After I wrap up the free live AI and Dashboards class, I’ll head straight into book-writing mode. 

Currently, my go-to writing playlist is a mystical Harry Potter one. I swear, something about that magical energy gets the words flowing! 🪄 What’s your favorite song to play to focus at work? 

Stay Exceling,

Kat