It must be hard to be really, really good at a boring thing.
If you’re the biggest manufacturer of toilet brushes in the world, it’s surely not easy to launch, say, a soap dispenser or a shower head.
So I felt sympathy when I learned that Microsoft desperately wanted you to take one of its most boring and successful products and actually enjoy using it.
more Technically incorrect
I got an email, you know, from the company, with a warm New Years twist. The subject line was, “Try one of these creative ways to use Microsoft Excel this year.”
I confess that I never thought I would see a sentence containing the words “Excel” and “creative”, unless that sentence was: “If you’re just not creative at all, you might actually like use Excel”.
Still, here’s Microsoft with six suggestions that can inspire you to greater heights or just drift your mind to winter misfortune.
Also: How to Create a Drop Down List in Excel
First, Microsoft wants you to use Excel to track your fitness.
Don’t desperate fitness enthusiasts already have fancy watches and apps to do just that? Don’t they love sharing their performance data with their fitness trainers, significant friends, or just every other fitness freak in the world?
The mere idea of Excel dramatizing or even lighting up its fitness numbers seems odd.
If that doesn’t work for you either, how about using Excel to play Sudoku? I’ve always thought that people use Sudoku to play Sudoku, and surely there’s nothing fun about Excel. How would Excel improve the Sudoku experience? I have no idea.
Also: The 5 Best Fitness Trackers
Microsoft’s third suggestion is just as sedentary: follow your athletic parenthesis.
Oh, I guess.
I believe Microsoft is specifically referring to the NCAA Tournament, without naming it for legal reasons. Again, however, Excel for that? Aren’t there a hundred prettier little apps that make your media look more glorious? Or am I just not giving Excel enough credit?
Microsoft is not discouraged. If you don’t want to use Excel for your sports break, how about using it to plan your vacation? I actually clicked on that link in the email and found, oh, the trip planner with the word “spreadsheet” in parentheses.
I don’t want planning my trips to be a job. I want them to be fun. And the models offered by Microsoft here look like something more than a day at the beach.
Also: The 5 Best Travel Planning Apps
Was Microsoft getting desperate here? I fear it is possible. Especially since his next idea was “Create Pixel Art”.
I have no idea what this has to do with Excel because when I clicked on the link it took me to a TikTok of illustrations from around 1978. One was a waffle, I am told, because waffles have rows and columns.
It didn’t work on me. It just wasn’t. It also didn’t work on everyone on the TikTok page because there were comments, such as “Can’t open Microsoft Edge Help” and “How do I get the TPM 2.0 Stick for Windows 11 ?”
I felt exhausted. None of these creative Excel activities were appealing. None of them yelled at me to change my less than excellent ways.
But there was another suggestion to make. It would surely be the most creative of all. You have the best for last, surely.
Well, suggestion #6 was, “Organize your week. Stay on top of your to-do list and dedicate time to what’s important.”
Also: The 6 Best To-Do List Apps
Ah. Oh.
I felt that Microsoft was running out of ideas. I know a lot of people use Excel for organization, so I had a hard time seeing how creative this idea was.
Please, there may be many people around the world who are extremely good at using Excel for all sorts of exciting things. Why, Microsoft itself even organizes an Excel championship for really exciting people. Like actuaries, I think.
I fear, however, that for very many people Excel is just a boring, efficient and utilitarian thing, and it always will be – until ChatGPT makes it redundant, I guess.
