I’m interested in how people use XL as a personal organiser. My own method is as follows:
I have a workbook which is always open (and I prob alt tab to it 50 times a day)
SHEET1: (things to do -tasks/appointments etc)
….column A: date of task or appointment (if applicable)
….column B: who I’ve got to see etc (if applicable)
….column C: actual task/appointment
I’ve set conditional formatting so that if the date in column A is less than 24 hours away the cell automatically turns red (24-72 hours away the date cell turns blue), and i regularly use the sort keys to sort by whichever column.
SHEET2; things which I may or may not get around to doing -(mostly ideas for future projects). I review the stuff in this sheet occasionally, but not often enough- it currently stands at around 50 “ideas”- few of which I now feel I’ll ever get involved in. Yet I can’t help feeling that I might get around to using them…
SHEET3 my constant things to do list- what I’ve gotta do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Phone numbers. My vacation days.
SHEET4; my 1% file: stuff I’ve deleted from sheets 1 & 2. Only a 1% chance I’ll ever use something in this worksheet- but no harm in having it I guess.
SHEET5: diary of completed appointments etc transferred from SHEET1 (if I think they are memorable enough).
SHEET6: Learning Log: General (job related or otherwise). My logic is that if I find out something useful, it’s handy to keep myself aware of it. Example entry “7% inflation over 6 yrs halves value of yr money”.
SHEET7 Learning Log: -PC related.
At various times in the past I’ve kept learning logs on various other topics.
Anyway in these days when we can be bombarded with information this is what I feel works best for me. I never have ask anyone to remind me to do anything, and I never have to stick a post-it note on the side of the monitor.
How do others use XL as an organisation tool?
