In the 29th session of Chandoo.org podcast, let’s impress the boss with Excel charts.

What is in this session?

Many Excel charts live a short life. They spawn in an ambitious analyst’s spreadsheet. They go to boss with literally flying colors. The boss frowns, they disappear in to recycle bin.

Don’t curse your Excel charts with short life span.

Here is a 6 step road map to help you create awesome Excel charts, everytime.

That is our topic for this podcast session.

In this podcast, you will learn

• Quick announcements about 50 ways & Einstein
• 6 step road map for charting success
• ONE: Dig your data
• TWO: Validate insights
• THREE: Pick charts that go well
• FOUR: Add title & message
• FIVE: Remove clutter
• SIX: Prompt action
• A real life example with road map in action
• Resources for creating awesome charts

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We all have visions of spring cleaning as it involves our living quarters. Get down to the bare walls, clean everything, and have a fresh start.
Most people don’t realize, though, that you should do the same thing to your calendar. Today we will look a… Continue reading →

Did you know you can use Excel 95-03 Color Names or Color Numbers in your Custom Number Formats in all Excel versions up to an including Excel 2013?

This post will show you how. Continue reading →

Today let’s look at the insidious nature of barely unreasonable requests, and how to boost your productivity by avoiding them.
The post Productivity Boost: Avoid Barely Unreasonable Requests appeared first on Simple Productivity Blog.

More great conte… Continue reading →

Just a quick announcement.

As you may know, I will be speaking at PASS Business Analytics conference in Santa Clara this April (between 20th & 22nd). As a run up to the event, the good folks at PASS are conducting free webinars on various topics of Excel.

Here are 2 topics on which I am doing webinars. You can watch them and pick up some really cool Excel skills. Just click on below links to enjoy them.

1. 5 Dashboard mistakes to avoid (watch it any time)
2. Excel charting – productivity tips (live on February 3rd)

That is all for now. See you in the webinar. Continue reading →

In February, my sponsors feature those that tickled my fancy. Calm The Email Dragon In my latest e-course, I teach you how to keep email from swallowing you whole. It contains specific instructions on how to set up both processing and reference folders, and a workflow to show you how to use it. You can […]

The post Sponsor Post, February 2015 appeared first on Simple Productivity Blog.

More great content can be found on the site at Simple Productivity Blog., or you can find me on Twitter (@SmplProdBlog) and Facebook (Facebook.com/SimpleProductivity).

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On Fridays I pull the best of my blog readings to share with readers. Topics can come from anywhere, and cover anything.
This week I highlight articles on setting up for success with decluttering; creating a morning routine with habit stacking; 5 good … Continue reading →

Here is a fun problem to think about.

Let’s say you are looking at some data like above.

And you want to find out what is the longest streak of wins in the list.

How do you calculate it?

bonus question: What formula calculates when the longest streak began? Continue reading →

Several people have commented to me in the past few weeks that because I prefer to simplify things, that must mean I am a minimalist. Nothing is further from the truth.
The post Minimal Is Not Simple appeared first on Simple Productivity Blog.

More g… Continue reading →

Imagine you are the in-charge of finance department at Hogwarts. So one fine day, while you are practicing the spells, Dumbledore walks in to your office and says, “Our electricity bills are way too high. As the muggles don’t accept wizard money, we have to find a way to reduce our power consumption.”

So you summoned the previous 12 month utility bills to examine energy consumption patterns, and pretty soon you realized that most of the electricity consumption is due to the light bulbs. You suddenly have a brilliant idea. Why not replace the light bulbs with a variety that consumes low power? A light bulb moment indeed.

Your next step is to figure out what varieties of light bulbs are out there. Fortunately this is easier than catching a snitch in a game of quidditch. A quick search revealed that there are 3 types of light bulbs:

• Regular incandescent bulbs (the kind Hogwarts currently uses)
• Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFL)
• Light Emitting Diode bulbs (LED)

Now your job is to do a cost benefit analysis of these options and pick one. Continue reading →