Does just the mention of the word 'spreadsheet' cause your mouthto go dry? Do you immediately think of sums, formulae, andfigures? Well fear not any more -- spreadsheets aren't just for sums!
I'm here to give you some tips on how you can use spreadsheetsin your every day business to help you keep organized and on topof your work - and there isn't a formula in sight!
No.1 'To Do' List
How do you manage your day-to-day tasks? Do you have a notebookfor your To Do lists and cross out each one as you go along? Ordo you have little yellow post-its stuck all over the place? Isthis really the best way of managing your daily tasks?
Spreadsheets are a great way for you to organise your To Dolist. Set up headings in the first row and add your tasksbelow. You can then sort your list by any column that youchoose, making it an interactive To Do list. And best of all,your list is contained in one place.
Create a shortcut to your To Do list and place it on yourdesktop so that you can access it easily, or just keep it openand minimise your screen each time you're not using it.
No.2 Log Registration/Password Data
Another great way to use spreadsheets is to keep track of allthose websites that you've registered at, and need to insert ausername and password in order to gain access to.
Even though I try and keep to the same username/password Isometimes find that a website will require you to insert yourusername or password in a certain way, with digits as well asletters, or a minimum of six characters etc. etc. and then itstarts to get confusing remembering which username/password forwhich site!
Set up a spreadsheet with Organisation, Website Address,Username, and Password as your column headings, and keep trackof this information in one easy-to-use place. As your liststarts to get longer, you can also sort your data intoalphabetical order, making it even easier to find yourregistration details.
No.3 Create a Simple Mailing Database
Another great use for a spreadsheet is to set up a simplemailing database. Perhaps you've researched a target market andwant to send them a mailing. By creating a spreadsheet to inputtheir name, address, phone number, email address, and websiteyou can easily keep a track of your data.
You can also use this data to carry out a mail merge via Word. Create active hyperlinks for the email and website addresses andyou can email or visit their website directly from yourspreadsheet.
And if you add an additional column for 'Responses' you cansimply monitor your success rate too!
No.4 Track Potential Clients and Follow-ups
If you regularly have enquiries from potential clients, whetherthey're phone calls or directly via your website, you can set upa spreadsheet to track this data. You can see where yourenquiries are coming from, which method of marketing is the mosteffective, and if the prospect turned into a client.
You can also add an additional column for 'Follow-up Date' andperform a sort on this column so that you know who to follow upwith and when!
No.5 Monitor a Project/Activity Planning
Because spreadsheets also accept date formats they are a greatway to track projects or plan activities. You can easily useautofill to create a date timeline too. Use the column headingsfor your dates, and the rows for your activities.
As you work along the timeline, you can hide the columns withpast dates, showing only those columns for current and futuredates. And if you want to be really creative, use differentcolours for the cells to represent different activities, i.e.blue cells = to be done; red cells = overdue etc.
There are so many more projects that you could use a spreadsheetfor that don't require you to input complicated formulae. WhenI was compiling this list for you, I thought of twice as manyagain, all of which would help you to organise your day-to-daybusiness activities.
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