Life can often feel overwhelming, with a constant flurry of activities and responsibilities. This chaos can lead to the development of unproductive habits. While various tracking devices and productivity applications exist, I discovered a more effective solution: a customizable Excel spreadsheet.
Excel’s Portability Makes It a Standout
A free version of Excel can be accessed on mobile devices and online
Typically, I prefer open-source software for my personal ventures. However, my workplace favors Excel, so I’ve become adept at using it. This familiarity inspired me to utilize Excel, particularly for tracking my habits, for several reasons:
- I can access a standalone app on my mobile device.
- Older versions of Excel still provide the same functionality.
- XLS files are compatible with alternative software like LibreOffice, allowing me to use my spreadsheet on various operating systems.
Customizing My Excel Spreadsheet for Effectiveness
A tracker needs to be visually appealing
If I don’t enjoy the appearance of my tracker, I’m unlikely to use it. To enhance its visual appeal, I set the font to Courier New at size 12 and adjusted several formatting options:
- Enabled text wrapping for all cells.
- Applied borders to every cell.
- Changed the top row background to light green.
- Set the background color of other cells to a medium blue.
- Bolded the text in the header row.
- Used white bold for the habit text.
With my customization complete, I was ready to outline the habits I wished to track.
Identifying My Key Habits
A spreadsheet offers clarity on progress
I have a long history of working with spreadsheets, so my familiarity makes Excel an attractive option for tracking my habits. I decided to focus on key areas such as getting adequate sleep and ensuring I eat breakfast daily. I often find myself sleeping less than seven hours and skipping breakfast. Additionally, I wanted to track my goals for reading, playing guitar, exercising, and pursuing coding skills.
Once I populated my spreadsheet with these habit goals, I was ready to test its functionality.
Creating a Functional Habit Tracker
My aim was to integrate a progress bar feature using specific formulas. With Excel’s checkbox feature, tracking became straightforward—simply insert checkboxes into the relevant cells. I then focused on using the REPT and COUNTIF functions to create a visual progress bar. The formula I employed was:
=REPT("▮", COUNTIF(B3:H3, TRUE))
Make sure to adjust the formula based on your specific tracker setup.
I opted for a bright yellow font for better visibility of the progress bar and used conditional formatting to automatically highlight completed tasks.
Reflecting on a Week of Tracking
My consistency surprised me
I utilized my spreadsheet for a week, maintaining honesty in tracking my activities. The outcomes were revealing. I struggled with my sleep habits, averaging only 4 to 6 hours, with just one night meeting my target. While I exercised more consistently, I still aimed for a full week instead of only five days. Breakfast and my reading and guitar sessions went well, but I found myself spending too much time on YouTube and not performing well in my coding practice.
Interestingly, I managed to adhere to my goals of reducing caffeine intake and limiting junk food consumption.
Insights Gained from the Experience
This project led to the creation of a highly functional spreadsheet that highlighted areas for improvement. Given that it is in XLS format, I can easily access it through different applications. Tracking habits proves to be valuable, and utilizing a habit tracker makes the process engaging and effective.
