Speed Learning Excel: Three Time-Saving Techniques to Excel Mastery
Are you struggling to figure out Microsoft Excel?
When I applied for my first job, I didn’t even know what Microsoft Excel was, despite getting 100% on the competency test (suspect, I know). Thankfully, I got the job, but the first year was hell. I was asking my colleagues the most basic questions, I didn’t know any formulas, and my formatting for important files was atrocious.
I needed to figure this Excel thing out fast or my job could be on the line.
For me to be able to learn Excel and become the top Excel expert at my company, I needed to figure a few things out:
- I needed to learn basic formulas
- I needed to learn keyboard shortcuts
- And I needed to learn proper formatting techniques
If this sounds like your situation, or you want to level up your Excel skills, let me save you some time and give you the recipe that allowed me to become my company’s Excel expert.
Way #1: I needed to learn basic formulas
I was completely incompetent with formulas and it definitely showed.
The key was to identify the most important formulas and learn those first. The groups of formulas that have the greatest ROI are Lookup & Reference (XLookup, Vlookup, Index Match (Match)), Logical (IF Statement, AND, OR), and Text (Concat, Left, Right, and Mid). I focused on learning one of these formulas each week, starting with the Lookup & Reference formulas.
With these formulas figured out, I immediately understood and could accomplish 80% of the tasks assigned to me.
Way #2: I needed to learn keyboard shortcuts
My job demanded and rewarded the ability to iterate and change analysis spreadsheets quickly and I was falling completely behind.
Becoming extremely fast with Excel shortcuts is surprisingly easy with consistent practice. The approach I took was to learn one shortcut each day. I could use the mouse for anything else, but I could not use it for the shortcut of the day that I chose. For the first few hours of the day, you feel like Bambi, but after you’ve been going at it for a half day or so, you realize that you’re starting to internalize it and it’s becoming subconscious. I still take this approach today with shortcuts and it always works.
Having shortcuts in your subconscious is amazingly productive and makes you seem superhuman at times.
Way #3: I needed to learn proper formatting techniques
My spreadsheets looked like hot trash. There’s nothing more to say.
The keys to formatting are in a few different buckets:
- Technical — Technical elements that, I believe, make a better analysis
- Wrapped text header cells, centered text header cells (I prefer middle for horizontal & vertical), and (Optional) borders on header cells (I like having the header cells pop as I believe it helps tell a better story). If you don’t prefer these options, at least put some thought into them. - Artistic / Subjective — Formatting tells a story. What story do you want to convey to the reader?
- Color — The color of a cell can indicate many things (input cell — important, calculation cell, please-review cell, etc…) and it's important to signal to the user the significance/importance of the cell/column.
- Column Order (Left to Right)- Even more important than color is order. If you logged into your online banking profile and your balance was 10 subdomains deep and in the middle of paragraph 45/150, you would be extremely confused and probably file a complaint. The order of your analysis, or any type of file, must tell the reader a story. Think about where each column should go and what type of story it tells to the reader.
By doing these 3 things, I became my company’s Excel expert.
Putting together spreadsheets is the way of the amateur; commitment to the practice of Excel is the way of the professional.
