Progress and plan of attack on an massive spreadsheet

I spent Tuesday working on a page of updates. It took me a good eight hours of thorough work.

I have roughly ten pages left. I am going to copy and paste content as-is. It's not the best method, but it does make my documents complete.

Once all that is done, I'll cycle back and do my thorough fixes. It's my current plan that will definitely get the content in by end-of-day Wednesday. If I can't get my thorough fixes in by Wednesday, that's okay. I'll continue fixing them for the next software release.

I dislike scope creep. An additional 2,000 rows of information in this one spreadsheet was completely unexpected.

Spreadsheet nightmare and next weekend's plans

I have a deadline of Wednesday to get two documents delivered. It's involves in regards using ugly spreadsheets as my source. They went through massive updates since I last used them in December.

I spent Sunday working on these documents. I have made good progress, but need to go through roughly 2,000 rows of data. I've already gone through that may rows! We'll see if I can get through this nonsense.

Next weekend will be better. I'm getting together with a friend on Saturday now that our lockdown has been lifted once again.

Pushback from a colleague that rubbed me the wrong way

At work, a couple of months ago, I was given a task to take data from two horrible spreadsheets and create documents out of them. I am doing this task again for our upcoming software release.

I have made it clear that I don't want to be stuck with this task forever. I was given this task because I am normally the one who is good with taking a first stab in designing it and outlining a potential process. 

My manager agreed. He met to with my two peers who have taken over my software release work. He wants them to own this task. I was also in attendance. 

One of them did not like it. He basically asked me what my challenges were. He then said that was the reason for this meeting was that I needed help.

I find that when I handled everything on our team, very few people on my team understood just how much work I did. I have done this grunt work for far too long that I have better things to do. Anyone can do this work. I have earned it. My experience and performance speak volumes.

My manager put his foot down and said that he wants them to own this task because it's considered a part of the release work. It's true. They don't realize that I have been handling another task for years that anyone can do, but I am stuck with that for years. I shouldn't carry the burden of having two such tasks.

It was interesting to see how this guy started to push back on this task and the second task that was discussed. It was fascinating observing him.

I am on my Chromebook. I love it. Such a great purchase.

A twist with spreadsheet hell

On a good note, I managed to create my documents based on two ugly spreadsheets. I was supposed to get an updated set of spreadsheets.

There's a twist in the plot. The woman who created these spreadsheets has left the company. She didn't bother giving me new ones before she left. How considerate.

Then again, since she did such a poor job with them, I can imagine why she walked away from her job. She probably didn't enjoy doing this work.

Two people are taking over her job for the time being, so it'll be interesting working with them.

Spreadsheet hell

I have been writing two new documents for work. They are based on two spreadsheets that are horribly designed.

This person interchanges the software product's name and the software company's name. On top of that, she has merged a bunch of columns, so it's difficult to comprehend. Ugh!

Finally, this person repeats the same list of software products for every software release that our company does. Yet, the list is supposed to reflect a specific release. Huh? It's such a waste of time going through each software release because the versions rarely change.

I am nearly done with this set of spreadsheets for the previous release. I am expecting a new set this week. I have a feeling that they will look equally horrible because this person hasn't bothered to make her spreadsheets meaningful and useful. Instead, it's a dumping ground for her data.

It's payday!

I get paid by my employer every two weeks. Technically, I get paid every other Thursday.

I do love my bank. It deposits my pay electronically by 22:10 on Wednesday night. I spend a bit of time paying various bills based on my bill payment schedule. It's an Excel spreadsheet. I have had a number of variations over the years, but the current one has guided me out of my darkest debt stage.

It makes me so happy paying bills and seeing results. I also like that I can put money away towards my retirement and emergency fund. It was challenging doing it a year ago.

Things are looking up and good with my finances. It takes a lot of effort and planning to get out of debt. I'm so pleased that budgeting has paid off (pun intended)!

Debt reduction update

I haven't written about my debt reduction progress for a bit, other than continuing to save money staying at home. Commuting to the office is gone. I don't fill up my car with gas all that often. I go out twice a week for groceries, essentials, and takeout to help my favourite restaurants out.

As a result, I have more disposable income. It has been great contributing to my retirement saving and regular savings accounts. I had to dip into the former when my debt situation wasn't great. I didn't have an emergency fund. My regular savings account is that emergency fund that I have wanted and needed.

I get paid this week. It's a huge turning point. I will be paying off my line of credit completely. I am thrilled.

I do recommend having a budget and sticking to it, no matter how great or grave your debt situation is. I have been using an Google Sheets spreadsheet for a while and it does wonders. It's a question of being disciplined sticking to your budget, which is the toughest part.

Early start and a new modem to come

Yesterday, my workday started before 7 am. It's nice wrapping up work early. In my case, I ended up working a bit more because only one person was in a spreadsheet that I needed to update. It's much easier to update dropdown menus when there aren't a ton of users in the same shared file.

I do have an update on my Internet issues. Naturally, a test was done before 6 am and the signal was fine according to my Internet service provider. Of course, it was! I had rebooted my modem before I went to bed and I expect the signal to be strong when I'm not fully using my wifi!

Anyway, I am getting a new modem shipped to me this week for free. That's good news. This modem has two wifi bands. We'll see how things work out. I'm optimistic.

Planning tasks - from a list to a spreadsheet

Last week, I was asked by my manager to put together a high-level project plan. I tend to be pretty good when it comes to providing a list of tasks (milestones) and planning work that needs to be done.

My manager does everything in an Excel spreadsheet. When I am gathering my thoughts, I prefer lists. OneNote is my friend. I do my lists there and use checkboxes indicating whether such tasks are completed or are ongoing.

He seemed fine with my list. It makes porting my tasks over to Excel much easier.

Even though I felt like I hadn't done a ton of work on this project plan, I actually did. He was pleased, which made me happy that I had pulled it off.

It's a good thing that I am a planner by nature. Otherwise, I would have been a nervous wreck having this discussion with him.