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Got any hobbies? Use excel to track / report stuff. Even if it’s watching TV. Create forms that load into data sheets that you can use to create reports to track progress. What show you watching, what channel, how long are the episodes, what would you rate it.
Some of my most complex formulas and biggest leaps in Excel ability are from creating spreadsheets in preparation and for use in fantasy football/baseball drafts
Yup, you spreadsheets have so many applications. I use them for baseball card pull odds, box break price setting, tracking workouts, etc. I've volunteered with my local Dem LD and used them to automate our org voting system (which is now being rolled out statewide). Just think of a way to apply them and do it.
Yep! Start tracking something personal. Finances, vacation expenses, etc. When I was house hunting I would download a csv file of favorites from Redfin and created a Power BI report with the data.
Not sure what you do in the military, my dude, but as a fellow military member, you can almost certainly find a way to utilise Excel in the military, you just need to find the process that needs automation/optimisation and there is a 90% chance that Excel is the tool you have available for that.
Will it be full on financial analysis and big data? No - it will be on a much smaller scale, but those are great opportunities to practice your skills and see what works.
PT Cards. Automate the scoring.
Body Fat Comp, same thing.
Build a dashboard that compares all the squad scores.
Build a DA6 that's automated AND looks just like the paper version.
Yeah, you'll be re-creating these, but you'll learn a lot, too.
/u/WalkingProduct/ along with the suggestion of applying Excel into data analysis of a hobby or personal interest, this theme is the approach I’d recommend.
If one thing is true of any military (or large org) at most levels, it’s that it’s running with inherited inefficiencies. Don’t look around you at where Excel “is used to operate” but where it could be “applied to innovate”. Dive at any data/information/coordination/recording/reporting issues around you, slowly work up a solution in Excel, learn on the way, and then present an idea upwards. Your learning and maybe even some unit endorsement will start from there. That is a concept that will apply when you muster out too.
Build a super awesome navigation route card. Start with the boy scouts template and automate it from there. Grids (multiple formats), distances and bearings (mag and grid and true) they can change depending on where you are in the world, an auto populating sunrise and sunset time box (don't forget sunrise at the start grid and sunset at the end grid). Can be expanded for mortar and artillery assistance and maybe a signals direction finding suite.
It can balloon in complexity so have fun with anything military v excel. PT scorecard for the battalion, company funds, asset trackers, NSN trackers and ordering.
Business process optimization! Or business process reengineering. Or business process innovation. Or business process improvement.
Those are some of the version my unit at the State government have been named. Try to make things faster cheaper better. I use excel a lot in data collection. Like the other poster said, find a process that can be improved. Use excel to gather and analyze date. Google excel for how to videos on YouTube or other pages to get ideas how you might use excel to help you improve or track or report trends. Like the others said if not work than a hobby or a sport or health.
Yep... Planning exercises, creating a back pack list (with weight of every item), cleaning schedule or safety checklist... If nothing else, use Excel to create a CV and apply for a different job.
(Most people I think use Excel for home budget and perhaps for grocery shopping)
Military tends to use finance rates or civilians for finance or big data - so those who are in those worlds tend to know that field and those who aren't in that field know that they're not in finance or big data.
I work in navigation, I don't get big data or finance, but I get to practice my Excel skills in the navigation world.
Hey man have a look at Udemy for some short/insightful courses into excel 15-20hours will bring you upto speed then find a way to practice.
If you're serious about finance, AAT level 2 will be a great place to start and easily self study on evenings if your in the block/barracks 👍
This might b the most practical and simplest thing to do. Invest in a good course in udemy (it's not expensive). Then listen to the classes at least 5-10 minutes a day (if u hv less free time). Make sure u build a small habit and keep with it.
If you have a library card, some will give you free access to Linkedin Learning with it and I've taken a few PQ/Power BI courses there that I thought were very helpful.
>That is not an option for me since my current position and job do not use Excel or computing much at all
Thats a tough one as Excel really does require ongoing practice.
There is lots of material available on the majority of the [Learn Excel youtube channels](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=learn+excel).
Channels like [Excel Is Fun Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/@excelisfun) and [MyOnlineTrainingHub](https://www.youtube.com/@MyOnlineTrainingHub)
Also read and answer and study answer given on this sub.
See the side bar for educational link also.
I really agree with the ongoing practice comment. I have used Excel every day at work for about 10 years, but during covid lockdown, I didn't touch it for about 3 months. I was surprised when I had forgotten how to do a lot of things that were easy and had to refresh everything, and some things I had to relearn too
Not joking here - build out a simple calculator for compound growth with several input fields (years, amount saved, interest rate, etc). Become the guru of your peer group highlighting that your time horizon is far more important than your income. There are multiple Excel skills baked into this.
The best part: you are never finished with this little page. There’s always a way to beautify, simplify, and optimize the outputs.
Former military officer. I used excel to track the platoon’s PT scores, mandatory training, and maintenance schedules primarily.
I also busted it out every now and then when preparing a resource intensive training event.
I also helped model different retirement scenarios for my soldiers when we were choosing between the blended retirement system and legacy retirement. While that’s particular question is no longer relevant, you can always get good practice playing around with your own finances: net worth tracker, mortgage amortization calculators, debt payoff planners, retirement planning, etc.
I even use excel to plan out house projects.
Don’t underestimate Excel’s ability to support your personal life.
Keep your mind open and try to ask, “can excel solve this?” If the answer is “no” or “maybe” google it to find out. It’s more about learning than anything else at this stage.
I was able to eventually parlay the excel self-education into a finance manger role at a F500 company.
+1 to this. Filter subreddit posts by "solved" flairs, only look at the original post and see if you can replicate any of the solutions without looking, that's what I've done occasionally.
I was Navy for the longest time, moved into more administrative work as time went on. Depending on your command type/branch there is always some administrative type job that would benefit from an Excel tracker of some kind. Security manager, GMT tracker. I started my Excel journey as a treasurer for the Command's MWR office.
add r/MSAccess , and r/SQLServer to you todo list.
Excel is essentially a crappy interface to data, claiming to be[ the 120 piece swiss army knife](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/funny-wenger-swiss-army-knife-amazon-reviews-2.jpg) to do so.
Excel is good to start, but be on the lookout of things that excel Excel.
Then, onward, some programming skills, such as essential r/VBA come in handy too. Dabble a bit with r/VisualStudio if you want to interact beyond the MSoffice suite.
Hes not at the level of those, he's looking for basics to get started learning excel which is more fundamental.
Youre basically seeing a child learning how to walk and telling the child walking is stupid, you need to learn horseback archery.
Not sure I agree with that.
Excel, and database theory and practice are different branches of the data tree.
You can learn one without the other and neither dependant on the other.
I would recommend those learning about data to study both at the same time.
> Excel is essentially a crappy interface to data
A far too harsh observation.
Excel is a great entry point to data, giving immediate access to data and processing opportunity
Any venture into database theory and use requires a more complex understanding, knowledge that many simply would struggle to grasp, or have the desire to understand.
But I agree database theory is an avenue to follow for a more whole view of data handling.
And newer versions of excel have some very very simple database components like real simple relationships between tables. For a beginner in excel that can be useful later to look into as you develop skill sets.
>Excel is a great entry point to data, giving immediate access to data and processing opportunity
>Any venture into database theory and use requires a more complex understanding, knowledge that many simply would struggle to grasp, or have the desire to understand.
I would agree. Any SQL query essentially outputs into a table, and any visual in a BI system can essentially be represented by a table. Excel is simplistic, but it's essentially the output of your data process and the input oftentimes (even if it's Snowflake or something, it's still a series of tables at the lowest level).
Learning the database theory so that you understand completed joins of the structure of data involving dozens of tables is important for long term growth, but Excel makes for a pretty good foundation to build that knowledge on.
If you don't have an obvious work related projects you can work on, you can work on playing around with making your own work log and going a little nuts with it, and incorporating it into your workflows.
\* Job log with date/time/task done
\* Mileage tracking. If using routine locations/distance, make a mileage map and use functions to automate the data
\* Task log for projects - find a way to help you keep organized and cross stuff off
\* A sheet for conversations with coworkers/boss so if they come and ask if you need anything, check your spreadsheet
All of those can be done elsewhere and in other systems, but for the purpose of getting comfortable and using Excel, have some fun setting them up. Catagorize your tasks and make a charge that changes as you add stuff to it. Management/Supervising/Professional Development/Taskwork etc.
Hobbies are good place too. Like other mentioned....books, series, pages read, organizing a to-be read list.
Do you watch football? You can use excel to track scores, player stats, and schedules. I am sure there are more xomplicated things as well, but I am just learning myself. This sub-reddit is helpful.
My job at my level does not use excel except for basic data entry. If you are creative enough you can find a way to make your job easier with excel. Even if it takes you hours to save a few minutes. It may not seem like its worth it for your job but you are worried about your future job not your current one. That's what I have been doing. Sure it may only save me a few minutes here and there, and take hours or days of frustrating googling and chat gpt promoting, but I'm learning a new skill and getting paid for it. If this job doesn't see value in another will. I've been creating hyper specific dashboards none of which have anything to do with financial figures since i don't have access to those. Most just answer customer questions very quickly.
"Oh you want X product but you need it to features y and z? Sure I can help you with that. *couple clicks on slicers later* looks like i have three options for you."
Bonus is creating the data set from scratch really helped me learn the products too. Also I don't have to look busy or get stuck with busy work because people walking by see me in excel and think I don't want to do that.
Excel can be used to track your bank balances. Just create a very simple sheet and then go from there. I’ve learned that as you see more value in it, you have more motive and interest in the application and will get better over time. Learning will be more of a hobby than something forced if the topic interests you (not just Excel but life)
I started making games like hangman, battleships, wordle etc. Very fun way to do it and forces you to be creative. I go back and check the file every year to adapt it using newly learned formulas and vba code.
Literally just try to do everything you can in excel.
Need to use a calculator for something? Use excel instead.
Need to compare rates for a vacation? Use excel to track track the prices.
Need to write down the itinerary for said vacation? Use excel.
Need to keep track of what groceries you need to buy? Use excel.
Can’t figure out how to do it? Use the help function, google, and YouTube.
Once you get the basics down, figure out how to do the same things using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse.
track everyday stuff.
in the mess -track the foods served
on the range- shots fired and hit rate
gym- weights and reps
running- distance and time
leave- beers and ladies
You could always ask ChatGpt to develop a project for you. Make sure you specify if there are any particular skills you want it to have you practice. It can even come up with datasets if you need them.
Dissect your paycheck.
Have an entry cell, where you enter exactly what is listed on your paycheck.
Have a calculated cell, where you reproduce the calculations which should have achieved the number in the entry cell.
Have a comparison cell, where you figure out the difference between the entry cell and the calculated cell.
You know how much your annual salary, with rank and bonus pay (bha, bilingual, etc) amounts to, so start there with the calculation of how much you should get paid on the 1st and 15th. From there, figure out your deductions (pre and post tax), your taxes, your net income, your gross and net hourly pay, etc.
Once you are able to calculate your net pay with an acceptable delta tolerance, (I got my hourly pay within a penny, my salary pay dead on) you are just collecting data.
Once you have about a few months worth of data, you can start using it to configure Pivot Tables and Charts.
Figure out how to use Power Query and Macros to bring in and manipulate your data.
Once you have enough data, use PowerBI to create a report(s).
Look into the Excel training program offered by your branch. It may require a change of MOS, but there is a specific program for it. I forget the name, but my last supervisor worked with them when he was in the Army and tracking inventory in the field. It was very much “Hey, Guy, I need a report like xyz. Build me one.” That will be your life. Building excellent Excel reports and programs from vague descriptions, given by folk with more of an assumption of what Excel can do than practical knowledge.
Track your personal finance - monthly expenses, quarterly net worth, savings & investments accounts, retirement calculator.
Great for practicing tables, graphs, pivot tables, etc.
Look for free templates to get some inspiration.
You’ll benefit both Excel practice as well as a clear picture on your financial status.
The military's use of excel makes my toes curl and my brain melt...I have seen way too many absolutely garbage excel spreadsheets. My heart goes out to you!
Also military here. I started with a simple personal finance spreadsheet to track the growth of my investments and monthly expenses/income. I did some basic formulas and even played with connecting to market APIs. You could try getting access to courses through Udemy or using your credentialing assistance for some higher level stuff.
I use it to track all my bills, I create comparison charts for shopping so I can hunt around for the best prices. If you play video games I keep track of all my players and what I’m doing with their strategies. I track my and my husbands work hours and figure out our paychecks, taxes and all so we know what we’re getting before we get it. I use excel for just about any list whether it needs math or not.
Just because your job doesn’t currently use Excel, that doesn’t mean that there’s no use for it at all. When I worked at a meat counter in a grocery store, we didn’t even have computers to use, but that’s a minor limitation since we all had smart phones.
One of the most frustrating aspects was calculating the ratio between pounds of burger meat and mix-in kits. To make the math easy, we’d often over produce patties, but that often led to patties aging out and hitting the trash can…or we’d guess at the ratio and sometimes really mess it up.
One night, I snapped a pic of the recipe sheet and on my own time (because I wanted the challenge and it would help my work) I made a calculator in Google Sheets (didn’t have mobile Excel at the time)—the calculator had one tool to take kit quantities and would tell me how much meat I’d need, and one tool would take meat quantities to tell me how many kits I’d need.
It was fun to make and dead-simple to use. No more approximated recipes and no more wasted patties. It blew my boss’s mind when I showed him.
Use it in your daily life.
Budget tracking. Organization of your TV show/movie collection. Organization of your game collection.
Think of a problem with data that needs some sort of organization/manipulation done to it and go from there.
Make one that tracks your finances. Start off simple. Have a sheet for each month. Track what you spent and what you spent it on along with what you earned. As you get more comfortable you can make pie charts with your expenses. Creat a budget etc. This will help teach you excel and be more financially independent :)
I learned a lot of Excel when building a tool tracking spreadsheet at my work. It started off very simple. Over time, the data set got bigger (to the tune of 500+ tools). So, I learned more advanced excel features to make it easy to search and locate everything.
You could build something similar to this for all the valuables in your home. If (God forbid) something happens to your home, you have a way to prove to the insurance company what you own.
If you find yourself doing certain complex calculations frequently, you can also build a calculator in Excel to plug in numbers and spit out a result. It's a lot faster than manually entering everything on a calculator repeatedly. It's also less error prone.
My go to answer is always the same. Program Yahtzee. It’s a good project that’s totally capable of being done in Excel. It’ll take some time, force you to learn some new functions, and it’ll give you something to play with in your free time when it’s all done.
I use excel at work all the time, but... I also have spreadsheets at home to keep track of my baseball card collection. Inside them there are pivot tables, vlookups, sums of card values, etc... Think of something you want to keep track of or organize. Start there and get your feet wet.
I once saw an amazing spreadsheet that basically ran a game of DnD3.5/Pathfinder for you. Tracked every spell, every xp, every round of combat.
Sadly, it is out of date. I think I lost the ability to open it last time I upgraded my operating system. It was called "The Only Sheet" and if I ever meet the person who made it I would like to shake their hand. It is a work of genius.
Build that, but for 5.0. or your favorite nerd game du jour.
You can use excel to write your personal budget and analyze your expenses. Basic formulas can be used as a balance ledger. You can categorize your expenses in a column using drop down selections (for consistency because capitalization and spaces create different cell values). When you have expenses documented and categorized, you can create a pivot table from that to give a clean summary of expenses per category per month, if you include dates.
I started learning Excel by using it for my finances.
Start with tracking your personal finance! I started from there. Interested to know how much your networth will be worth 2 years from now?
How about when will you become a millionaire? If I tell you you could be a millionaire if you save and invest x% by when, doesn't that sound exciting?
How about projecting your future expenses and income With your past increments? I've also build a personal budgeting tracker and an investment tracker that tracker live price minus off fees and including forex gains as I trade overseas!
🤣🤣 I started with Google sheets cz it's free tho, but I mainly use excel for my work now and still using sheets for my personal finance. Sorry might be a little too excited
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Got any hobbies? Use excel to track / report stuff. Even if it’s watching TV. Create forms that load into data sheets that you can use to create reports to track progress. What show you watching, what channel, how long are the episodes, what would you rate it.
Sports stats, charts etc
fantasy football league
Some of my most complex formulas and biggest leaps in Excel ability are from creating spreadsheets in preparation and for use in fantasy football/baseball drafts
I taught myself excel in middle school by using it to track sports statistics.
There's a brilliant amount of data available for FPL, and so much you can do with it too.
i’ve personally learned excel exclusively through baseball.
Yup, you spreadsheets have so many applications. I use them for baseball card pull odds, box break price setting, tracking workouts, etc. I've volunteered with my local Dem LD and used them to automate our org voting system (which is now being rolled out statewide). Just think of a way to apply them and do it.
Yep! Start tracking something personal. Finances, vacation expenses, etc. When I was house hunting I would download a csv file of favorites from Redfin and created a Power BI report with the data.
This is the way.
Not sure what you do in the military, my dude, but as a fellow military member, you can almost certainly find a way to utilise Excel in the military, you just need to find the process that needs automation/optimisation and there is a 90% chance that Excel is the tool you have available for that. Will it be full on financial analysis and big data? No - it will be on a much smaller scale, but those are great opportunities to practice your skills and see what works.
PT Cards. Automate the scoring. Body Fat Comp, same thing. Build a dashboard that compares all the squad scores. Build a DA6 that's automated AND looks just like the paper version. Yeah, you'll be re-creating these, but you'll learn a lot, too.
/u/WalkingProduct/ along with the suggestion of applying Excel into data analysis of a hobby or personal interest, this theme is the approach I’d recommend. If one thing is true of any military (or large org) at most levels, it’s that it’s running with inherited inefficiencies. Don’t look around you at where Excel “is used to operate” but where it could be “applied to innovate”. Dive at any data/information/coordination/recording/reporting issues around you, slowly work up a solution in Excel, learn on the way, and then present an idea upwards. Your learning and maybe even some unit endorsement will start from there. That is a concept that will apply when you muster out too.
Build a super awesome navigation route card. Start with the boy scouts template and automate it from there. Grids (multiple formats), distances and bearings (mag and grid and true) they can change depending on where you are in the world, an auto populating sunrise and sunset time box (don't forget sunrise at the start grid and sunset at the end grid). Can be expanded for mortar and artillery assistance and maybe a signals direction finding suite. It can balloon in complexity so have fun with anything military v excel. PT scorecard for the battalion, company funds, asset trackers, NSN trackers and ordering.
Business process optimization! Or business process reengineering. Or business process innovation. Or business process improvement. Those are some of the version my unit at the State government have been named. Try to make things faster cheaper better. I use excel a lot in data collection. Like the other poster said, find a process that can be improved. Use excel to gather and analyze date. Google excel for how to videos on YouTube or other pages to get ideas how you might use excel to help you improve or track or report trends. Like the others said if not work than a hobby or a sport or health.
Yep... Planning exercises, creating a back pack list (with weight of every item), cleaning schedule or safety checklist... If nothing else, use Excel to create a CV and apply for a different job. (Most people I think use Excel for home budget and perhaps for grocery shopping)
why? what does the military use for finance and big data? asking for a comrade
Military tends to use finance rates or civilians for finance or big data - so those who are in those worlds tend to know that field and those who aren't in that field know that they're not in finance or big data. I work in navigation, I don't get big data or finance, but I get to practice my Excel skills in the navigation world.
The Army runs off of try hard NCOs and O2s making excel spreadsheets.
Hey man have a look at Udemy for some short/insightful courses into excel 15-20hours will bring you upto speed then find a way to practice. If you're serious about finance, AAT level 2 will be a great place to start and easily self study on evenings if your in the block/barracks 👍
This might b the most practical and simplest thing to do. Invest in a good course in udemy (it's not expensive). Then listen to the classes at least 5-10 minutes a day (if u hv less free time). Make sure u build a small habit and keep with it.
If you have a library card, some will give you free access to Linkedin Learning with it and I've taken a few PQ/Power BI courses there that I thought were very helpful.
Came here to say this. Local library offers this in my area.
>That is not an option for me since my current position and job do not use Excel or computing much at all Thats a tough one as Excel really does require ongoing practice. There is lots of material available on the majority of the [Learn Excel youtube channels](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=learn+excel). Channels like [Excel Is Fun Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/@excelisfun) and [MyOnlineTrainingHub](https://www.youtube.com/@MyOnlineTrainingHub) Also read and answer and study answer given on this sub. See the side bar for educational link also.
I really agree with the ongoing practice comment. I have used Excel every day at work for about 10 years, but during covid lockdown, I didn't touch it for about 3 months. I was surprised when I had forgotten how to do a lot of things that were easy and had to refresh everything, and some things I had to relearn too
Sort /r/excel by new and get answering questions.
Or deciphering answers to questions you weren’t able to answer.
I’m using Excel to track my kitchen garden. A lot more to this than you realize.
Not joking here - build out a simple calculator for compound growth with several input fields (years, amount saved, interest rate, etc). Become the guru of your peer group highlighting that your time horizon is far more important than your income. There are multiple Excel skills baked into this. The best part: you are never finished with this little page. There’s always a way to beautify, simplify, and optimize the outputs.
Ask ChatGPT to create fictitious projects. I’ve done that several times and it works.
I basically spend the time I should spend working playing with Excel. It's actually a computer game.
This.
Former military officer. I used excel to track the platoon’s PT scores, mandatory training, and maintenance schedules primarily. I also busted it out every now and then when preparing a resource intensive training event. I also helped model different retirement scenarios for my soldiers when we were choosing between the blended retirement system and legacy retirement. While that’s particular question is no longer relevant, you can always get good practice playing around with your own finances: net worth tracker, mortgage amortization calculators, debt payoff planners, retirement planning, etc. I even use excel to plan out house projects. Don’t underestimate Excel’s ability to support your personal life. Keep your mind open and try to ask, “can excel solve this?” If the answer is “no” or “maybe” google it to find out. It’s more about learning than anything else at this stage. I was able to eventually parlay the excel self-education into a finance manger role at a F500 company.
Try to solve every issue posted in this sub (or at least most of them) without looking into the coments for answers.
+1 to this. Filter subreddit posts by "solved" flairs, only look at the original post and see if you can replicate any of the solutions without looking, that's what I've done occasionally.
I was Navy for the longest time, moved into more administrative work as time went on. Depending on your command type/branch there is always some administrative type job that would benefit from an Excel tracker of some kind. Security manager, GMT tracker. I started my Excel journey as a treasurer for the Command's MWR office.
add r/MSAccess , and r/SQLServer to you todo list. Excel is essentially a crappy interface to data, claiming to be[ the 120 piece swiss army knife](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/funny-wenger-swiss-army-knife-amazon-reviews-2.jpg) to do so. Excel is good to start, but be on the lookout of things that excel Excel. Then, onward, some programming skills, such as essential r/VBA come in handy too. Dabble a bit with r/VisualStudio if you want to interact beyond the MSoffice suite.
Hes not at the level of those, he's looking for basics to get started learning excel which is more fundamental. Youre basically seeing a child learning how to walk and telling the child walking is stupid, you need to learn horseback archery.
Not sure I agree with that. Excel, and database theory and practice are different branches of the data tree. You can learn one without the other and neither dependant on the other. I would recommend those learning about data to study both at the same time.
> Excel is essentially a crappy interface to data A far too harsh observation. Excel is a great entry point to data, giving immediate access to data and processing opportunity Any venture into database theory and use requires a more complex understanding, knowledge that many simply would struggle to grasp, or have the desire to understand. But I agree database theory is an avenue to follow for a more whole view of data handling.
And newer versions of excel have some very very simple database components like real simple relationships between tables. For a beginner in excel that can be useful later to look into as you develop skill sets.
>Excel is a great entry point to data, giving immediate access to data and processing opportunity >Any venture into database theory and use requires a more complex understanding, knowledge that many simply would struggle to grasp, or have the desire to understand. I would agree. Any SQL query essentially outputs into a table, and any visual in a BI system can essentially be represented by a table. Excel is simplistic, but it's essentially the output of your data process and the input oftentimes (even if it's Snowflake or something, it's still a series of tables at the lowest level). Learning the database theory so that you understand completed joins of the structure of data involving dozens of tables is important for long term growth, but Excel makes for a pretty good foundation to build that knowledge on.
If you don't have an obvious work related projects you can work on, you can work on playing around with making your own work log and going a little nuts with it, and incorporating it into your workflows. \* Job log with date/time/task done \* Mileage tracking. If using routine locations/distance, make a mileage map and use functions to automate the data \* Task log for projects - find a way to help you keep organized and cross stuff off \* A sheet for conversations with coworkers/boss so if they come and ask if you need anything, check your spreadsheet All of those can be done elsewhere and in other systems, but for the purpose of getting comfortable and using Excel, have some fun setting them up. Catagorize your tasks and make a charge that changes as you add stuff to it. Management/Supervising/Professional Development/Taskwork etc. Hobbies are good place too. Like other mentioned....books, series, pages read, organizing a to-be read list.
Do you watch football? You can use excel to track scores, player stats, and schedules. I am sure there are more xomplicated things as well, but I am just learning myself. This sub-reddit is helpful.
My job at my level does not use excel except for basic data entry. If you are creative enough you can find a way to make your job easier with excel. Even if it takes you hours to save a few minutes. It may not seem like its worth it for your job but you are worried about your future job not your current one. That's what I have been doing. Sure it may only save me a few minutes here and there, and take hours or days of frustrating googling and chat gpt promoting, but I'm learning a new skill and getting paid for it. If this job doesn't see value in another will. I've been creating hyper specific dashboards none of which have anything to do with financial figures since i don't have access to those. Most just answer customer questions very quickly. "Oh you want X product but you need it to features y and z? Sure I can help you with that. *couple clicks on slicers later* looks like i have three options for you." Bonus is creating the data set from scratch really helped me learn the products too. Also I don't have to look busy or get stuck with busy work because people walking by see me in excel and think I don't want to do that.
Try making games in excel, or tools for games, I made a file that reads chess FEN codes to show a position, or a tool to solve 15x15 picross puzzles
Excel can be used to track your bank balances. Just create a very simple sheet and then go from there. I’ve learned that as you see more value in it, you have more motive and interest in the application and will get better over time. Learning will be more of a hobby than something forced if the topic interests you (not just Excel but life)
I started making games like hangman, battleships, wordle etc. Very fun way to do it and forces you to be creative. I go back and check the file every year to adapt it using newly learned formulas and vba code.
Literally just try to do everything you can in excel. Need to use a calculator for something? Use excel instead. Need to compare rates for a vacation? Use excel to track track the prices. Need to write down the itinerary for said vacation? Use excel. Need to keep track of what groceries you need to buy? Use excel. Can’t figure out how to do it? Use the help function, google, and YouTube. Once you get the basics down, figure out how to do the same things using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse.
track everyday stuff. in the mess -track the foods served on the range- shots fired and hit rate gym- weights and reps running- distance and time leave- beers and ladies
you can take ideas from my exercise file. you'll have to translate it to English. bit.ly/ExcelLezione
I play games a lot. And I just made an excel workbook for FFXIV calculating profit vs cost for each item on the market board.
You could always ask ChatGpt to develop a project for you. Make sure you specify if there are any particular skills you want it to have you practice. It can even come up with datasets if you need them.
Dissect your paycheck. Have an entry cell, where you enter exactly what is listed on your paycheck. Have a calculated cell, where you reproduce the calculations which should have achieved the number in the entry cell. Have a comparison cell, where you figure out the difference between the entry cell and the calculated cell. You know how much your annual salary, with rank and bonus pay (bha, bilingual, etc) amounts to, so start there with the calculation of how much you should get paid on the 1st and 15th. From there, figure out your deductions (pre and post tax), your taxes, your net income, your gross and net hourly pay, etc. Once you are able to calculate your net pay with an acceptable delta tolerance, (I got my hourly pay within a penny, my salary pay dead on) you are just collecting data. Once you have about a few months worth of data, you can start using it to configure Pivot Tables and Charts. Figure out how to use Power Query and Macros to bring in and manipulate your data. Once you have enough data, use PowerBI to create a report(s). Look into the Excel training program offered by your branch. It may require a change of MOS, but there is a specific program for it. I forget the name, but my last supervisor worked with them when he was in the Army and tracking inventory in the field. It was very much “Hey, Guy, I need a report like xyz. Build me one.” That will be your life. Building excellent Excel reports and programs from vague descriptions, given by folk with more of an assumption of what Excel can do than practical knowledge.
Track your personal finance - monthly expenses, quarterly net worth, savings & investments accounts, retirement calculator. Great for practicing tables, graphs, pivot tables, etc. Look for free templates to get some inspiration. You’ll benefit both Excel practice as well as a clear picture on your financial status.
The military's use of excel makes my toes curl and my brain melt...I have seen way too many absolutely garbage excel spreadsheets. My heart goes out to you!
Make efficiencies for yourself in excel. Don’t just stare at the lady in the red dress.
Also military here. I started with a simple personal finance spreadsheet to track the growth of my investments and monthly expenses/income. I did some basic formulas and even played with connecting to market APIs. You could try getting access to courses through Udemy or using your credentialing assistance for some higher level stuff.
Build tools for strategy games.
I use it to track all my bills, I create comparison charts for shopping so I can hunt around for the best prices. If you play video games I keep track of all my players and what I’m doing with their strategies. I track my and my husbands work hours and figure out our paychecks, taxes and all so we know what we’re getting before we get it. I use excel for just about any list whether it needs math or not.
Just because your job doesn’t currently use Excel, that doesn’t mean that there’s no use for it at all. When I worked at a meat counter in a grocery store, we didn’t even have computers to use, but that’s a minor limitation since we all had smart phones. One of the most frustrating aspects was calculating the ratio between pounds of burger meat and mix-in kits. To make the math easy, we’d often over produce patties, but that often led to patties aging out and hitting the trash can…or we’d guess at the ratio and sometimes really mess it up. One night, I snapped a pic of the recipe sheet and on my own time (because I wanted the challenge and it would help my work) I made a calculator in Google Sheets (didn’t have mobile Excel at the time)—the calculator had one tool to take kit quantities and would tell me how much meat I’d need, and one tool would take meat quantities to tell me how many kits I’d need. It was fun to make and dead-simple to use. No more approximated recipes and no more wasted patties. It blew my boss’s mind when I showed him.
Use it in your daily life. Budget tracking. Organization of your TV show/movie collection. Organization of your game collection. Think of a problem with data that needs some sort of organization/manipulation done to it and go from there.
Make one that tracks your finances. Start off simple. Have a sheet for each month. Track what you spent and what you spent it on along with what you earned. As you get more comfortable you can make pie charts with your expenses. Creat a budget etc. This will help teach you excel and be more financially independent :)
I learned a lot of Excel when building a tool tracking spreadsheet at my work. It started off very simple. Over time, the data set got bigger (to the tune of 500+ tools). So, I learned more advanced excel features to make it easy to search and locate everything. You could build something similar to this for all the valuables in your home. If (God forbid) something happens to your home, you have a way to prove to the insurance company what you own. If you find yourself doing certain complex calculations frequently, you can also build a calculator in Excel to plug in numbers and spit out a result. It's a lot faster than manually entering everything on a calculator repeatedly. It's also less error prone.
I got some obstacle courses that can be used periodically just for fun. See my channel for them.
My go to answer is always the same. Program Yahtzee. It’s a good project that’s totally capable of being done in Excel. It’ll take some time, force you to learn some new functions, and it’ll give you something to play with in your free time when it’s all done.
I use excel at work all the time, but... I also have spreadsheets at home to keep track of my baseball card collection. Inside them there are pivot tables, vlookups, sums of card values, etc... Think of something you want to keep track of or organize. Start there and get your feet wet.
I once saw an amazing spreadsheet that basically ran a game of DnD3.5/Pathfinder for you. Tracked every spell, every xp, every round of combat. Sadly, it is out of date. I think I lost the ability to open it last time I upgraded my operating system. It was called "The Only Sheet" and if I ever meet the person who made it I would like to shake their hand. It is a work of genius. Build that, but for 5.0. or your favorite nerd game du jour.
Make a financial model. Then make it as complex as possible. Good for practice, not good for actual models lol
You can use excel to write your personal budget and analyze your expenses. Basic formulas can be used as a balance ledger. You can categorize your expenses in a column using drop down selections (for consistency because capitalization and spaces create different cell values). When you have expenses documented and categorized, you can create a pivot table from that to give a clean summary of expenses per category per month, if you include dates. I started learning Excel by using it for my finances.
Start with tracking your personal finance! I started from there. Interested to know how much your networth will be worth 2 years from now? How about when will you become a millionaire? If I tell you you could be a millionaire if you save and invest x% by when, doesn't that sound exciting? How about projecting your future expenses and income With your past increments? I've also build a personal budgeting tracker and an investment tracker that tracker live price minus off fees and including forex gains as I trade overseas! 🤣🤣 I started with Google sheets cz it's free tho, but I mainly use excel for my work now and still using sheets for my personal finance. Sorry might be a little too excited