In December, as usual, I did a review of the past year, and made a business plan for the new year. Instead of adding a long list of new tasks and projects, my goal this year is to “Let It Go”. I’ve cut out, or cut back, on old projects, and not planned any new ones.
No More Contextures Newsletter
The biggest thing that I cut from my schedule was my Contextures Excel newsletter. I started it in 2012, and sent out my final issue on November 30, 2021. It was interesting to write each issue, and I got great feedback from the newsletter readers, so I’ll miss that part of it.
The part that took the longest though, was finding a couple of links to Excel-related articles, to include in the newsletter. I looked for well-written articles, with content that was fresh, and useful, and not already covered in great detail on my own site. That was quite a struggle sometimes!
You can see a list of all the issues, on my Contextures site. Click a link to go to that issue.
No More Contextures Products
Another thing that I cut out last year, was creating and selling Excel products. I learned a lot while building and marketing them, but it became too time-consuming to update and support them.
New versions of Microsoft Office and Windows usually caused a few problems. Excel add-ins that had worked perfectly before, suddenly started misbehaving. Code that ran smoothly one week, created errors the next week. I never wanted people to end up with Excel problems, because of my products, so I cleared the shelves, and closed the shop doors.
There are still lots of free Excel files on my site, but those are downloaded “as-is”, with no support for troubleshooting problems. However, I do read the email questions that people send, and usually try to help a bit, or point them in the right direction. But no guarantees!
Tracking Activities in Excel
When it’s time for my year-end review, and planning for the new year, I always start with a close look at my daily time-tracking data. Did I really spend lots of time supporting projects and writing newsletters? Or did it just feel like lots of time?
With all the data stored in Excel and Microsoft Access, it’s easy to check. I track the hours spent on each project, and tasks are split into 2 broad categories – Content and Admin. My goal is to keep the Admin hours to a minimum!
- There’s a simple example of Excel time tracking on my Contextures blog, if you’d like to get started.
- For a fancier time tracker, go to this page on my Contextures site: Track Excel Project Tasks
Tracking Non-Work Activities
Excel is handy for tracking non-work activities too, and I haven’t given up my daily weather list. I started it in 2017, and haven’t missed a day, so far!
I also keep track of daily steps, and Excel says I’ve walked at least 5000 steps for 1258 consecutive days. Not that I’m obsessively collecting data, or anything!
And, if I were still publishing my Contextures newsletter, I’d put in this link. The article’s author keeps track of more things than I do!
But, to my credit, I did give up the daily story tracking, that I wrote about previously. It was an interesting exercise, and I did it daily from February to December last year. Then, at my year-end review, I decided to “let it go!”
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Business Plan for 2022 – Cutting Back
Debra,
I was wondering what happened to the newsletter. I always found it useful to read or go to your site and do a search. Thank you for everything. Great to hear you at cutting back.
Enjoy 2022 and continued success. You are a true pioneer.
Thank you, Wayne, and I hope you enjoy 2022 too!