Some thoughts on spreadsheets
Hi Hermione,
I joined recently too - nice to hear someone else finding value straight away!
I work as an Independent Financial Adviser in the UK and would class myself as a 'Power User' of Excel. (I say this tongue in cheek as the last book I read to improve my knowledge of Excel had emblazoned on the front ‘for Administrators, Developers & Power Users' and I don't fit the profile of the first two!)
I have some simple advice for you - use Outlook, get the GTD add-in and get everything out of your head and into the program. (The add-in does make a huge difference.)
Excel enables very many things to be accomplished by using it. (You can use it to word-process and send emails, for example.) My experience as office ‘fixer’ has shown me that the vast majority of users utilise about 1% of Excel’s potential about 99% of the time. I use Excel to model scenarios and relationships and to build calculators and accounts and cash flows; that is what it is good at.
In my opinion, Outlook remains far ahead of the rest as Microsoft’s ‘Killer App’. If you are in that habit of using spreadsheets for EVERTHING, then it might be a bit of a challenge to break through that initial resistance, but the rewards are worth it!
I hope this is of use.
Kindest regards,
Dave