Modern life sure is hectic. There always seems to be something passing. We can all develop bad habits along the way. Watches, trackers, and all the different productivity apps are fine; but I found something that worked even better for me: some formulas in an Excel spreadsheet.
I made an exception for Excel because of its portability.
There is a free version of Excel available as a mobile and cloud app.
Normally, I choose open source programs for my personal projects and experiments. But I have to use Excel at work frequently (the office is not as interested in free software as I am), so I know the program. I can discuss spreadsheets with the best of them.
But I chose Excel for my habit tracking for other reasons:
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I could use a standalone app version on my phone.
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You could use an older archived version of the program and achieve the same results.
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XLS files are compatible with LibreOffice, so I can use my spreadsheet on Windows, Linux, and mobile devices. I created a new Microsoft account (I didn’t have one before) with a dedicated email address that I never use. Then I used the online version of Microsoft Excel. I mirrored my phone with the app, so I would have a portable version of my tracker available.
I spent some time setting up the visuals in my spreadsheet.
I won’t use a tracker if I don’t like looking at it
I knew that if I wanted this to work, I would have to customize it. I started by setting my font type to Courier New and the size to 12. Then I used CTRL + 1 to open the cell format menu and immediately adjust the following:
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I set all the text inside a cell to
wrap -
I set the cell borders to
all borders -
I set the background color of the top row to light green.
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All other cells were changed to a medium blue.
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All text in the top row was changed to
bold -
Habit text changed to white and
bold
After completing my setup, I was ready to define the habits I wanted to track.
I had specific habits I wanted to follow.
Using a spreadsheet will give me an idea of my progress.
If it weren’t for the fact that it is a Microsoft product, I would use Excel more often. I spent much of my early career making spreadsheets and can usually do them quickly and with my eyes closed. It’s like second nature to me.
As far as habits go, I thought tracking sleep and eating breakfast every day were two of the most vital. I tend to sleep less than 7 hours a night and occasionally skip breakfast. Other habits, such as reading a chapter of a book or an issue of a comic, playing the guitar for at least 30 minutes, and exercising for 20 minutes, are personal goals.
I’m also teaching myself how to code, so I added it as a habit to try as well. Once I loaded everything in my
Spreadsheet, I was ready to move on to the next step, which was to make it work as intended.
There was a magic formula that made a big difference
I wanted to create my spreadsheet with a progress bar feature and use specific formulas for the tracker to work.
Excel has checkboxes that make tracking easy and efficient. You can insert them by highlighting their cells and going to Insert > Check Boxes then you format them the same way you would a text message. I put them in the corresponding boxes.
Now comes my favorite part: the formulas. I went with him REPT and COUNTIF It works because they will allow me to make a visual progress bar. REPT repeat the text several timesso I used a solid block instead of a word. So I used COUNTIFwhich counts the number of cells I specify. The formula looks like this (I got the ASCII rectangle inline):
=REPT("▮", COUNTIF(B3:H3, TRUE))
The formula is based on my tracker, so your columns may differ. Don’t forget to adjust it accordingly.
I changed the font color to bright yellow so the progress bar would appear. As a fun little bonus, I went to Home > Conditional Formatting > Format Cells Where a Formula is True and used COUNTIF to automatically change the color of a completed progress bar for the week.
I used the tracker for a week and learned valuable information.
I’m a lot less consistent than I thought.
After creating the spreadsheet, I used it for a full week as a test. I think things went pretty well. I was honest with myself and didn’t check any boxes if I didn’t do it. in fact do the thing. So let’s break down how I did it.
Yo it really sucks to get enough sleep. I only had one day, all week (Saturday) where I slept more than 7 hours. I average 4 to 6. That takes some work. The exercise worked better, but I wish I went the full 7 days instead of just 5. Breakfast was easy, as was reading and playing guitar.
I totally failed at the YouTube thing. Technically, I use NewPipe, but it’s the same basic thing. Based on my phone tracking, I spend at least 30 minutes on the platform. Coding, organizing, and spending money were also pretty bad.
I did well with the “no caffeine at night” and “limit junk food” thing. Imagine.
I gained valuable information from this project.
In the end, I built a useful spreadsheet. It helped me highlight some areas where I could improve a little. And since it’s in XLS format, I can use it with Excel on my phone or import it into Calc if I want. Tracking habits is a good thing and a habit tracker offers a great way to do it.
