Most of us are faced with large projects from time to time. I realized that is often my job to manage and direct projects both at work as well as for fun.

It must be linked to some sort of organizational trait I have. If anything, I would never be able to survive without MS Excel. Well, I would use Open Office sheets or Google sheets too. Spreadsheets. That's the bottom line.

But I guess just throwing that word out to a newbie or someone who has not yet learned the skill is going to mean nothing. Or perhaps you use spreadsheets and you need inspiration on how to get a project up and working.

So let me start at the basics.

Why do I need to make a spreadsheet of something?

Firstly you need to appropriately decide if a spreadsheet is a good tool that can be used for your project. But generally a spreadsheet is good at keeping track of data, dates, values, checklists, sequence planning, calculations and more.

If that sounds like something for you then you need a spreadsheet!

The Blank Canvas

Here is where it all begins. Is it strange that I call it a canvas? That it is art? Well... it is sometimes an art. Making a spreadsheet that works for you is important.

If there is no plan or structure, then the spreadsheet will be little less than a collection of scribbled notes.

I am not going to cover controls and functions of excel. Microsoft, Google and many Youtubers cover that part of learning. There is so much for a person to learn, to me, you need to start at the finished product.

What is it you want to do?

Spreadsheets are great at tracking and tracing data but I wanted to make it relevant to a Motivation process for either work or hobby.

Division and Labels

To be able to motivate via planning and project structure, you need to have a goal and then figure out the steps required to accomplish that goal.

There are sometime interim goals. There are steps that require other steps to be completed first... Let me see if I can knock together a example:

Realize here that this post was not intended to be a lesson in Project Management, but about Spreadsheets. So I don't want to derail the subject matter here.

The idea here is that you have a big project and you don't know where to start or what to do. You are not motivated and directionless.

It is funny how people can often explain (moan) about what their problem is to others and then get nothing done. They don't realize that the solution to their problems is themselves!

All you need to do is put what you would explain to someone else, into writing.

Writing it on a notepad or a Word Document is OK.

But putting those thoughts and ideas into a spreadsheet and then slicing up the task into a beginning, middle and end.

The spreadsheet is not only there for ready-worked out solutions. It is there for problems too! Write those issues into the process and then follow a structure of assessment and planning to figure out what the possible solutions.

And repetitive tasks? Tasks with variable outcomes but with a cumulative total target? Put them in a Spreadsheet!

Numbers and Percentages

Don't underestimate the generation of a good statistic but don't get mired in them.

In the above picture 6 of the 18 nameless tasks were completed. This equals 33% complete so a 3rd. One could compare this progress with the time elapsed and time remaining.

You could also note down how long it took you to complete a task and consider how long it would take to complete a similar task that is upcoming.

Seeing your progress and work done equate into a completion score may motivate you to continue to work and work for the next increment.

Getting just one task done can move that percentage from 33.33% to 38.88%, aiming for 40% and 50% early on, you start to feel like you have accomplished a task, in interim task, or incremental task, but ahead of time.

Often people give up on big tasks because there is no measurable rate of success and if they only give themselves praise when everything is complete.

You have to give yourself a squirt of dopamine to see that things are moving forward but not so much that you start to slack off!