Why I Have a Pretty Spreadsheet for Everything
A well-made spreadsheet is a great tool for fueling your productivity and achieving your goals.
It was only recently that I noticed that I had a spreadsheet for almost anything. From tracking my game’s progress to my finances, I had one. My friends found it bizarre how meticulous I could be. For projects, they could understand. But they didn’t see the point of being that orderly for themselves.
I just think that it’s unfortunate. Some people don’t think that taking control of their lives is something worth doing.
Looking back, my penchant for creating sheets probably came from my college days. I would take the role of a project manager for most of my group work. I’d get a migraine whenever I see an unorganized — or worse — an outdated document.
My love for spreadsheets strengthened when I began to work in game development. Projects would be hectic without our project managers around, as well as their wonderfully assembled spreadsheets.
As trivial as it may seem, having a sheet to track everyone’s progress has made working in groups a lot better. How I structured larger projects naturally trickled down to my personal life. Now, I find myself making or updating my spreadsheets regularly.
A spreadsheet is a blank canvas.
While a simple list or even an app may suffice, I prefer to make a sheet. This is because spreadsheets are scalable and custom-tailored for you. You can go from simple to-dos to having a project timeline to track your progress if you so desire.
Not a lot of apps can offer the same features for free. Having one spreadsheet is better than jumping between apps to gain more functionality.
Spreadsheets do have their limitations, but they’re more flexible at organizing data. Most people won’t need more than a well-made document, but that depends on the situation as well.
Why a ‘pretty’ spreadsheet?
If you don’t like what you see, you’ll never find the energy to use it. Not having a pretty spreadsheet is like spending an hour reorganizing your cluttered desk, realizing that you haven’t done any work at all.
This is exactly why I go the extra mile to make my sheets look good.
Fortunately, free templates are all over the internet. These can help your spreadsheets look pretty without you having to put in the work. The only caveat is that you might spend some time editing data and discovering what exactly the template does. This is because you still have to make it work for you.
Personally, my preference is to start from scratch.
When I begin, I first identify my needs before creating a sheet. With that, I’ll have a general idea of what to do. Then, I’ll browse over templates and apps to see which blend of features could work for me. I begin creating the spreadsheet when I have a clear picture of what I want.
By starting from the ground up, I don’t waste time finding out what a template can do for me. Instead, I can focus on creating a sheet tailored for myself.
Here are some of the spreadsheets I’ve made.
To illustrate what I mean by pretty spreadsheets, here are some that I’ve made. Know that I am by no means a spreadsheet expert. I can’t remember shortcuts to save my life, and VLOOKUP is a myth to me. But, I can make useful spreadsheets that look pretty. It’s something!
1. Personal Finance Tracker
I created this spreadsheet after I graduated from college. I made it when I realized that I couldn’t add more bank accounts and use certain features on the Wallet app without opting for its premium version.
I didn’t like the idea of paying for more features, since I wanted to cut down on my expenses.
I’ll briefly go over the tracker. The spreadsheet has four tabs, namely: Cashflow, Savings, Expenses, and History.
The Cashflow tab, shown in the previous photo is the largest chunk of this sheet. It contains all the essentials: my daily expenses, earnings, and so forth. It’s a ledger where I track down everything that I’ve spent and earned.
While the process of filling up each entry looks like a lot, I find that it’s a good way to stay on top of things instead of being surprised to find an empty bank account.
Off to the side of the logs, you’ll see a summary of all the data. I’ve added these so that I can have a quick look at how I’m doing financially.
I don’t fill this up every day. I just keep all my receipts and transaction histories in one place. Then, I’ll note it all down during paydays so I don’t forget to update it.
Moving on to the next section, the Savings tab. It simply displays how much I should be saving and investing every month. The page also has an interest rate calculator so I can have an estimate of how much my money will grow over time.
The third part of my finance tracker would be the Expenses tab. The document primarily shows my monthly expenses. It also lets me know if I’m going over budget, and what category I’ve spent on the most each month.
Finally, the History tab is a glimpse of how I managed my money each year. It gives me a summary of what I’ve done in the past. Reflecting on the data helps me learn and improve my money habits.
This spreadsheet is something I’ve been working on over the past year. As my needs change, so do its contents.
For example, I used to have a tab for currency conversion. I forgot about it completely and kept using google to get my conversions. I realized that I didn’t need it as much as I thought, so I removed it.
Being able to remove and revise parts of your sheet is important. This is so that you aren’t weighed down by features you don’t find yourself using.
2. Weight Loss Tracker
My weight loss tracker is simple compared to the other spreadsheets that I’ve created. Not everything has to be complicated, its complexity depends on you.
I made this early in 2021 when I jokingly decided to lose weight. I already lost some kilos at the height of the pandemic due to stress, so why not?
Fast forward to now, this is the first time I’ve been at a normal weight after being obese all my life. There are definitely other factors that helped me get to where I’m at besides this, but that’s a topic for another day.
Delving into the tracker, the sheet contains a weekly log of my weight and body fat percentage. It also contains their averages, as well as a calculator that subtracts how much weight I’ve lost per month. Each year is kept in separate tabs to keep it organized.
Other than that, the overview tab displays the data in charts so I can visualize it better.
Even if I do use an app for calorie counting and an app that connects to my weighing scale, I find it motivating to use this sheet in tandem to see how far I’ve come.
3. Personal Project Task Tracker
This is based on my group project spreadsheets in college. At the same time, this is probably something that looks a bit familiar to those who have worked in video game or software projects.
The first tab of this sheet is an overview of all of my projects. Then, each project gets two dedicated tabs in the document.
The first project tab houses the lists of features, their respective estimates, actual hours it took, feature status, and feature priority. Additionally, it includes some project details and a comment box so I can note down particulars.
The next project tab is a log of my worked hours. With this, I can cross-check whenever my hours logged match the hours I’ve estimated on the previous page.
I do forget to note my hours most of the time, but checking between the two tabs helps improve my time management when done right. It’s also a good way to know if the features I want on my projects are unrealistic for my schedule.
All in all, spreadsheets are powerful tools.
I hope my spreadsheets have opened your eyes to this tool. They can do a lot— sheets don’t have to be trackers. I’ve made one to compare computer parts, and another was to list gift ideas for my friends.
You can use sheets for almost anything. Just the knowledge of making a good spreadsheet can benefit you personally and professionally. The possibilities are endless.
It’s great that a tool like this exists, and I’m ecstatic that it’s out here for free on platforms like Google Sheets and Libre Office. It helps me achieve my goals and stay organized without having to pay an exorbitant amount of money.
I know that this is not for everyone, but I urge you to try it.
Having a sheet or two helps give a systematic yet realistic approach to the dreams you want to reach. I encourage you to learn how to maximize the use of spreadsheets, then determine if it’s something you see yourself using in the future.
If you’ve tried and it still doesn’t click, that’s okay. We’re all different, and this is what works for me.
Either way, there are a lot of tools out there that can help bring some structure to your life as well. For that, I would recommend Google Keep and Notion. I’d use these if I ever needed an alternative to my pretty spreadsheets.
Or you know, writing down a to-do list isn’t a bad start.
