Excel and Organize!

Excel is my new best friend. Why, do you ask? Well, as you probably already know, it is a very useful tool at work when you want to do spreadsheets for financials or even categorize things. You can take raw data and sort via pivot tables and get all kinds of great statistics out of what seems like, sometimes, noise! LOL
What a lot of non-tech savvy people don’t realize is that you can use Excel (and Word for that matter) for so many other reasons or purposes. One of my favorites, you ask me? Inventory my game systems and their corresponding game titles! That was a good one and one I needed to do the first time I bought a game that I already had purchased prior! Ouch! What a waste of good money! Luckily enough, I found my mistake quite quickly and was able to return the unopened game for a full refund. But that was the time I started to realize that life can get in the way of memory and we all need to have a way to keep track of things.

How about an inventory of all your electronics? This way if anything happens to your stuff, you have an account and record of everything you owned. Take pictures along with that and you can even have info for insurance purposes if you keep in a safety deposit box and can prove you purchased them. How about collectibles? Everyone, (ok, so not really and truly everyone! LOL) likes to categorize something, most everyone has a collection of “something”. Some people like to collect unicorns, some electronics. I have a friend who likes to collect piggies and has a great big collection around her house! Well, you can use Excel in order to make lists and you can even keep a history of where you purchased them, why you purchased, notes of a trip or who was with you when you did purchase them and the money you paid for them. How about that?

Here’s another great use for it, templates! I love that one!!! Ok, I confess! I mostly use that one at work, but for having a cookie party at your home and sending out the invites? That template feature can really be a great tool for you to use! I make sure to use it any time that it fits into making my life easier. Isn’t that really what technology is all about? Making our lives easier and making life better to live!

The templates are a great way to get organized, especially if there is something that you do all the time. Keep a list of all your family members, their addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, anniversaries and email addresses? That’s a GREAT one to use with Excel templates. You can start the template and pass it around to all your relatives for easy access to the addresses come Christmas time to send out Christmas cards! I love to send out Kitty cards to all my relatives so it’s a great time to be organized, especially when you are talking about the Christmas season! LOL
If you are unaware of how to use, utilize or even want to learn something new having to do with Excel, Word, or any of the other Microsoft applications, go to www.microsoft.com and type in Excel – see how much information comes up. I bet you’ll learn a thing or two and thank me in the long run for simplifying and organizing your life!
What do you use in your day to day life that gives you such great power?
Thanks for listening….