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Monthly Archives: March 2018
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
Edward Tufte
Essentialism (Virgin Books, 2014)
Essentialism is a great concept and well explained and described in this book. Lots of examples and ways to include it in your life.
It is a different mindset and will take a while to implement and incorporate.
I read this book with Deep Work by Cal Newport they compliment each other.
Highly recommend.
Identify Milestone Years in Excel
MOD function to the rescue
Recently a client wanted help in summarising a large data list of employees. They wanted to identify the years of service in terms of 5, 10, 15 years and other milestone years based on a start date.
Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.
Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills.
Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom.
Jim Rohn (1930 – 2009)
Deep Work (Piatkus, 2016)
A good book to encourage and motivate you to focus more.
Social media and the internet are designed to keep your eyeballs on the screen. This doesn’t get the worthwhile work done.
Moderation is tough in anything and with the dice loaded against you its hard to limit time on the net.
Some good suggestions and ideas to help you get more great work done.
I read this book with Essentialism by Greg McKeown. they compliment each other.
Highly recommend.
My free Excel webinars are back
All webinars are not the same
I recently ran my first public webinar in nearly a year – Materials Link and streaming Video below.
I run free and paid Excel training webinars. Watch a recording or come along to a free session and see if you like them.
My aim is to make my live training webinars as enjoyable, useful and practical as possible, which means
- no PowerPoint slides EVER
- zero marketing or up selling – just Excel training
- no recorded content – its all live and interactive – comments and questions can be sent via a chat box
- detailed instruction manuals – yes, even the free sessions have a detailed pdf manual
- the free session recordings are always available – no time limits on watching
- paid recordings can also be downloaded
- annual attendance listing for CPD purposes when you attend a live session (sent out late January each year)
- you must record your own CPD when you watch a recording (like the one below)
Excel Test For One of Two Conditions
A shorter alternative
In Excel it is quite common to test a cell for either a zero or a blank. If either of these two entries are found then you do a particular calculation. There is an easy way to handle this.
Amazon
Bless their algorithmic hearts, Amazon are still trying to sell me my book.
It was released four years ago in April.
In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.
Albert Schweitzer (1875 – 1965)
Peak Performance (2017)
Some great practical advice on areas to improve on.
Applies to many different areas of life.
Basic premise is simple, but some great suggestions on how you can improve in all areas of your life.
Excel Formula to Extract the Domain
Using the SUBSTITUTE function
I recently read a blog post about using Excel for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). It mentioned a function to extract a domain from a URL. The function was from Google docs, not Excel. So I wrote an Excel formula to extract the domain from their list of URLs.
Selecting a column
To quickly select a column of data in a formatted table you have a couple of options.
Keyboard
Select a cell in the column and press Ctrl + Space Bar.
This will select the column of data. If you want the heading too, press it again.
You can also select multiple columns before using the shortcut.
Mouse
This technique can take practice if your headings are in row 1.
If the heading starts in row 2 or below it is easier. See image below.
If you point to just above the heading row you will see a downward facing, black arrow. Click this once to select just the data. Click it again to include the heading.
When the heading row is in row 1 you need to do the same but make sure the column letter doesn’t highlight.
The image below is the correct arrow – this will select the column in the table only.
In the image below the arrow shown (because the column letter is highlighted) will select the whole column, not just the data in the table.
If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.
Frank Wilczek (Nobel Prize winner)
Barking Up The Wrong Tree (2017)
Eric has blogged for many years and this book follows on from his blog.
His writing style is relaxed and it is an easy read.
A book that turns some common advice on its head and confirms others.
Lots of studies are examined some of them conflicting, so you may need to experiment yourself with some of the practical suggestions.
Checking Rounded Totals in Excel
Another SUMPRODUCT technique
Rounded values in Excel can pose a few issues. There is a formula you can use that can round a range of values and then SUM the results. This can be used as a check total for rounded values.
Evernote
2018-02-12
2018-02-12
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.
Terry Pratchett (1948 – 2015)
Tribe of Mentors (2017)
Another great book from Tim Ferriss.
This has lots of short advice about life from successful people from all walks of life.
Its a smorgasbord – you can open it randomly and learn something new.
It follows on from his podcast and the Tools of Titans – another great book.
Many of his podcast questions are answered by people who haven’t been on the podcast.
I use Evernote all the time.
This post lists 38 ideas that can simplify improve your life.
Click to see article