Series 2 - Learn How to Build Simple Tracker Spreadsheets in Excel

Hey there, goal-getters! Have you ever started the year strong, only to find your New Year's resolutions fading away by February? You're not alone! Studies show that a whopping 80% of New Year's resolutions fail. Why? Often, it's because we lack clear goals, a way to track our progress, and the motivation to keep going.

But what if there was a simple way to stay on track and actually achieve what you set out to do? That's where an Excel tracker comes in! In our previous post, Learn How to Build a Simple Tracker Spreadsheet in Excel - Series 1, we introduced the power of using Excel for goal tracking. Today, we’re taking it a step further. Recently, financial modeling expert, Frederick Nwanyanwu, shared his awesome method for building a super useful goal tracker in Excel, and we're here to break it down for you in easy steps. Let’s get into it!

Meet Frederick: The Excel Guru

Frederick is a financial modeling analyst with years of experience in accounting and finance. He's not just an Excel expert; he’s also trained thousands of professionals. He knows his stuff! He's passionate about helping people achieve their goals with smart tools.

Why Tracking Matters: The Secret to Success

Frederick explained why tracking our goals is so important:

• See Your Progress: A tracker gives you a quick picture of how far you've come. No more wondering if you're making headway!
• Spot Patterns: You'll start to notice what works and what doesn't. Maybe you're great at sticking to your morning routine but struggle with evening habits?
• Stay Motivated: Seeing small wins along the way is a HUGE motivator. Every checkbox you tick is a little victory!
• Stay Consistent: Having a tracker keeps you accountable and makes you more likely to stick to your goals.

Building Your Tracker: Step-by-Step Guide (No Tech Jargon!)

In this post, we are building upon the basic concepts introduced in our last post about excel trackers. Frederick walked us through building a simple but powerful tracker using Excel, building on our previous simple tracker!

1. Setting Up Your Spreadsheet: Imagine a simple table with columns for things like "Goal/Habit," whether you want to "Keep" or "Drop" the habit, and then columns for each day of the month (1st to 31st). We also have spaces to show how many goals you achieved (Total Count), a visual tracker, and a "Reward" column to celebrate wins! Think of it like a calendar but designed for your goals!
2. Dynamic Dates: Frederick used a smart Excel trick to make sure your dates always show the correct month, even if the year changes! It uses a few special words, or "functions," in Excel to make the dates automatically appear.
3. "Keep" or "Drop": We only want to allow people to select "Keep" or "Drop" in the habit intention column. To do this, we make a drop-down list using the data validation tool in excel,
4. Checkboxes for Tracking: Forget typing "Yes" or "No"! You can add checkboxes directly into your cells. Each time you complete your goal; you just click the box!
5. Counting Checkmarks: Excel can count how many checkboxes are ticked! This tells you how many days you hit your goal, using a simple function (COUNTIF).
6. Visual Progress Bars: Instead of just seeing a number, Frederick showed how to create a cool progress bar right in your cell, using something called the REPT function. It uses the symbol "|" to show a bar, based on your progress. You can even change the font to make it look fancy!
7. Color-Coded Progress: He showed how to make those progress bars change color based on how you're doing. Red for "Need to step it up!" and other colors for better progress!

Cool Excel Tips to Level Up Your Tracking:

• Multiple Months: You can easily copy the spreadsheet and change a few details to make a tracker for February, March, and so on!
• Highlighting: Use cell colors and borders to make the important parts of your spreadsheet stand out.
• Shortcuts: Frederick shared some amazing Excel shortcuts:
• CTRL + R: Copy what’s in a cell across multiple columns.
• ALT + H + A + L: Align text to the left.
• CTRL + SHIFT + 5: Turn numbers into percentages.
• F4: Repeat your last action.

Using shortcuts makes working in Excel so much faster and easier!

Key Takeaways from Frederick

• Excel only shows you what's in a cell; it doesn't change what the data actually is. (For example, you can change a number to a percentage format, but the underlying number remains the same.)
• Checkboxes in Excel are actually just "TRUE" or "FALSE," which means you can easily count them.
• The REPT function is your friend for making fun visual charts in cells.
• Learn Excel shortcuts to save time and energy!

Ready to Start Tracking?

Frederick also gave participants a free Excel tracker to download, which is very kind.

Want More Excel Training?

DBrown Consulting is running some upcoming Excel courses:

• "Learn Microsoft Excel for Productivity" (February 8, 15, 22) for ₦30,000
• "Financial Modeling Essentials" (March 8)

Stay Connected!

Follow DBrown Consulting on LinkedIn for more great training and webinars.

Your Turn!

What's your biggest takeaway from this series? What are you excited to track? Let us know in the comments!