Modern life is certainly exciting. It seems like there always is something continues. We can all develop bad habits along the way. Watches, trackers, and all the various productivity apps are fine; but I found something that works better for me: several formulas in an Excel spreadsheet.
I made an exception for Excel due to portability
A free version of Excel is available as a mobile app and in the cloud
I normally choose open source software for my personal projects and experiments. But I often have to use Excel at work (the office is not as keen on FOSS as I am), so I know my way around the program. I can argue tables with the best of them.
But I chose Excel for my habit tracker for a few other reasons:
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I could use the standalone app version on my phone.
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I could have used an older, archived version of the program and achieved the same results.
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XLS files are compatible with LibreOffice, so I was able to use my spreadsheet on Windows, Linux, and mobile devices. I created a new Microsoft account with a custom email address that I’ve never used (I didn’t have one before). Then I used it Online version of Microsoft Excel. I doubled up the phone with the app so I would have a portable version of my tracker.
I spent some time setting up the visuals on the table
If I don’t like watching it, I won’t use the viewer
I knew that if I wanted to make this thing work, I had to customize it. I started by setting my font Courier New and size 12. Then I used CTRL + 1 to open the cell formatting menu and immediately adjust the following:
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I set all the text inside the cell
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I set cell borders
all borders -
I chose light green as the background color for the top row
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All other cells were changed to medium blue
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Changed to all top row text
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The custom text has been changed to white and
bold
After completing the setup, I was ready to identify 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 Microsoft product, I would use Excel more often. I spent most of my early career making spreadsheets, and I can usually do them quickly and with my eyes closed. It’s like second nature to me.
In terms of habit, I thought that tracking sleep and eating breakfast every day were two more important things. I tend to sleep less than 7 hours a night and sometimes skip breakfast. Other habits are personal goals, such as reading one chapter of a book or one issue of a comic book, playing the guitar for at least 30 minutes, and exercising for 20 minutes.
I also teach coding myself, so I added it as a habit to try. Once I loaded everything on myself
Spreadsheet, I was ready to move on to the next step of making it work as intended.
There was a magic formula that created a different world
I wanted to build my spreadsheet with a progress bar feature and use special formulas for the viewer to work.
Excel has check boxes that make tracking efficient and easy. You can insert them by highlighting and crossing your cells Insert > Checkboxes then you format them as text. I put them in the appropriate boxes.
Now for my favorite part: the formulas. I went with REPT and COUNTIF functions because they will allow me to visualize the progress bar. REPT repeats the text several timesso I used a solid block instead of a word. Then I used it COUNTIFcounts the number of cells I specify. The formula looks like this (I bought ASCII rectangle online):
=REPT("▮", COUNTIF(B3:H3, TRUE))
The formula is based on my tracker, so your columns may be different. Be sure to adjust accordingly.
I changed the font color to bright yellow so that the progress bar opens. I went as a fun little bonus Home > Conditional Formatting > Format cells where the formula is true and is used COUNTIF automatically change the color of the completed progress bar for the week.
I used the tracker for a week and learned some valuable information
I’m less consistent than I thought
After setting up the spreadsheet, I used it as a dry run for a week. I think things went very well. I was honest with myself and didn’t tick the box if I didn’t actually do the job. So let’s explain how I did it.
I really bad to get enough sleep. I only had one day, slept over 7 hours all week (Saturday). I average 4-6. It takes some work. The workout turned out better, but I’d like to hit the full 7 days instead of just 5. Breakfast was easy, and so was singing and playing the guitar.
I completely failed the YouTube thing. Technically I’m using NewPipe, but it’s the same basic thing. According to my phone tracking, I spend at least 30 minutes on the platform. Coding, organizing and spending money was also pretty bad.
I agreed with the “no caffeine at night” and “limit your junk food” stuff. Go with the figure.
I got some valuable insights from this project
In the end, I made a useful table. It helped highlight some areas where I could improve a bit. 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 provides a great way to do that.
