How to be more creative at work 👩‍🎨

Hey! Stop me if this sounds familiar: ✋ It’s typical for you to waste dozens of hours in Excel on something that you know could take minutes…if only you knew the right shortcuts and functions.

Let’s stop that cycle now, shall we? 

Come to my free live Excel class! In just 60 minutes, you’ll learn how to optimize your spreadsheets (and save your sanity) with Lookup Functions and Shortcuts.

By the end, you’ll become the Excel wizard you know you can be. Best part? Excel will go from a time-sucker to a time-saver. Save the date:  

• Tuesday, May 21 at 3 PM ET 

• Wednesday, May 22 at 12 PM ET 

If you can’t attend live, no sweat—you’ll get access to a 48-hour replay when you register. See you soon! 

The Time-Saving Excel Shortcut Hardly Anyone Knows

POV: You glance over your boss’ shoulder and see them doing this: 👇

Are you going to…

1. Let them continue tediously typing “units” into every single cell? 

2. Become their new favorite person by showing them a handy Excel shortcut? 

Now, you wouldn’t be reading this newsletter if you didn’t want to choose option two. 😉 So let me show you how it’s done with the Format Cells dialog box. 

Ready? Let’s go: 

💡 Excel Tip: The Format Cells dialog box sets the formatting options (font color and size, background, borders, alignment, etc) for your cells.

Looking for more time-saving Excel tips like this one? I got you!

We’ll cover tons more in my free live Excel class happening later this month. Save your spot today!

3 Steps to Be More Creative (So You Can Crush It at Work) 

“I have no creative outlet.” This was the lie I’d been telling myself for years ever since joining the corporate world, keeping me in my comfort zone and allowing me to justify the more conventional career path.

But one day, I realized that just…wasn’t true. Creativity is always with you–it’s not just something that disappears once you have a 9–5. And with that realization? I built a seven-figure business, amassed millions of followers, and created thousands of pieces of content. 

I can say it from experience: Creativity. Changes. Lives. 

“But Kat, I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m in Microsoft all day!” you’re thinking. Listen, you still need creative thinking at your day job! It can help you: 

• ➜ Brainstorm that perfect Excel formula for intricate spreadsheets. 

• ➜ Determine which co-workers are best suited for a particular task. 

• ➜ Create drop-dead gorgeous PowerPoints to impress your boss. 

On board? Great! Here’s my three-step process to unleash your creativity: 

1. Schedule Your Creative Blocks 🗓️ When did you last clear your calendar for creative thinking? I regularly schedule “Left-Brain Days” in my calendar (best for creative flow states) to let the ideas flow through. I give myself at least 2–3 hours! 

2. Clear the Gunk. 🚰 When you sit down to brainstorm, you’ll need to “turn on” what writer Julian Shapiro calls your creativity faucet. This means first clearing out “gunk” of bad ideas (AKA brain-dumping) before you can eventually get clear water (i.e. brilliant ideas). 

3. Messy Action. 🏃 Your creative idea won’t be perfect–and that’s okay. Take messy action by getting it out into the world before you’re ready. There have been so many times I wasn’t sure about my idea…only to see it resonate with thousands. 

Just remember: Creativity is a skill—not a trait. That means, like any skill, it can be learned with a bit of practice and determination. Now go out there and let your ideas flow.

• Did you know you could schedule alarms in your PowerPoints? Now you do.

• The OFFSET function is ideal for those who have tons of data in their spreadsheets. 

• The two life hacks this person has used over the past 25 years—and swears by. 

• If your attention span is this 🤏 short you need these 11 tools to double your focus.

• Four XLOOKUP tricks I bet you’ve never heard of before.

Thanks for being here! I just got back from Palm Beach after celebrating my partner Mike’s birthday! It was such a blast but I’m so glad to be home—I’m buzzing with tons of new ideas for you all. 

Stay Exceling,

Kat