Wait...Excel can do that? 😦

Hey! I hope you enjoyed four days of pie, peace, and zero meetings over Thanksgiving. 🥧 

As a thank you for being part of the Miss Excel newsletter family, we’re extending our Black Friday sale exclusively for subscribers! Use the code WORKBOOK50, and you’ll get 50% off all Miss Excel courses.

There’s no one else we’d rather extend this perk to. 💚

“Wait…Excel Can Do That?” 

POV: You’re organizing data for a zoo. 🐾 Each row has the animal's name, breed, color, and temperament squished into one cell. Your job? Split that information into separate columns. 

Sure, you could do this manually. But it’d be pretty time-consuming…and would turn this dream job into a nightmare. 😅

Fortunately, Excel has a fix. Meet TEXTSPLIT! This neat function lets us split text into multiple cells based on your desired delimiter. All you have to do is type =TEXTSPLIT(A2,”,”) 

Voila! Just copy down, and Excel auto-populates all your columns.  

Here’s what’s happening: 

• A2 = The cell with your messy text 

• “,” = The delimiter (what separates your data—could be a comma, space, or semicolon) 

While most of us aren’t tracking zoo animals at our 9–5 (I wish), this trick works for a ton of everyday work scenarios. From breaking apart SKUs to separating addresses for mailing lists, the possibilities are endless! 

P.S. If you’d like to see this tip in action, you can watch my video right here!

Give Your Brain a Minute to Warm Up 🚰

Was this you? After four days off, you sat at your desk on Monday with tons of work to do. But as you tried to write that report or brainstorm that campaign, your brain felt clogged. Zero good ideas. 

Cue the spiral: Why can’t I think of anything? Did the holiday break melt my brain? 

Deep breath. You’re fine! And Ed Sheeran—yes, “Shape of You” Ed Sheeran—can explain why. In an interview about his songwriting process, Ed compared creativity to switching on a faucet that hasn’t been used in a while. 

• First, you turn it on, and nothing comes out. You’re staring at the blank page and feeling stuck. 

• Then, when the water does start flowing, it’s murky. These are your bad ideas. 

• But eventually, if you keep letting the faucet run, clear water follows. That’s where your good ideas live. 

Same with your brain after a break. It’s been in holiday mode, eating turkey, snagging Black Friday deals (hello and welcome to all our new students!), and doing anything but work. So when you ask it to switch into productivity mode suddenly, it needs a minute to warm up!   

Writer Julian Shapiro calls this approach the Creativity Faucet. And he points out that we only have one faucet. Meaning, we can’t shortcut our way to good ideas. Clearing the wastewater is a necessary part of the process. 

So, as you wrap up this work year, give yourself permission to start slow and messy. The good ideas are there. You just need to clear the pipes first. 🫗

• •“That’s 🔥” said a comment on my video on creating charts in Excel! 

• Excel wizards know how to turn a URL into an image. Do you? 👀

• Don’t learn this Excel tip unless you want to reclaim hours of time. ⏱️

• Who knew that WhatsApp and Excel could be such a power couple? 

• A psychologist explains how to use your body language to nail an interview. 💼

Thanks for reading! I recently stumbled on a Reddit post that asked: “Which Excel formula or function has been the most helpful to you?” 

Nearly 200 people replied. Any guesses on which one came out on top? 

(Hint: It was first announced by Microsoft on August 28, 2019.) 

Stay Exceling,

Kat