On Datacamp's Introduction to Excel

  

there’s unfolded laundry on my left and an unmade bed on my right. i wish i could tell you this milestone happened from a picturesque office chair with the latest tech and an ergonomic set up but it did not. this milestone happened from a floral print rocking chair set up by a drafty window. erik satie was playing from my laptop, a british political crime drama was playing from my tv and my pulse was an erratic puppy running through my ribcage.

it picked up into a rambunctious pace every 15 minutes at the slightest chance of delight. my heart swelled every time i got a quiz question right. every new concept was jotted down into my handy dandy notebook with a feverish shorthand i eagerly scrawled so i could study and eventually retrieve the excel knowledge from memory. i wanted to fetch the formulas and create the tables but right now, the struggle was taking the first step.

all week, i had pushed it off and procrastinated. but now it was saturday morning and my excuses had run out. i found myself deleting old emails from an old gmail account just to avoid studying the material on datacamp’s introduction to excel. i had gritted my teeth through 20 minutes of work on monday evening. by tuesday, i had so many excel windows open, i couldn’t distinguish the modules from one another so i decided to go back to the beginning and pretend those first 20 minutes never happened.

writing has always been my greatest ally for almost my entire life. whenever i’ve needed to ingrain a new concept, i’ve turned to writing. i can always tell when i’m processing something because i will write a ton of notes about it. that said, i only wrote 1 note on day one:

“Structured cell references can be great for easily identifying and understanding your table without the need to search for the specific column.”

this saturday was better, my schedule was clear and i always have more focus earlier in the day. i ate breakfast, did my morning pages, and with last friday night’s curls hanging on for dear life, i set out to wrap up chapter one.

it took 45 minutes.

and i only daydreamed about organizing my inbox once.

the modules on sorting and filtering were by far the easiest to concentrate on because i was inspired by their potential. so many ways to sort and filter and interact with different data sets…

i’ve been trying to let the space between where i am and where i want to be stay a place of inspiration and curiosity instead of a place of fear and anxiety. i’m good at swinging between two disparate states from my floral print rocking chair. it’s not always easy to stay optimistic about the possibilities but when i can find the crossroads, when i can see the ways data and creativity intersect, i can find my way and feel inspired to keep going despite the gaps. sorting data from A-Z and filtering it reminds me of the way i handle adjectives for the poems i write.

today the gap closed a little the second i completed my last quiz and wrapped up the last module in chapter one. relief blanketed me and i felt my jaw relax. i took the first step. the staircase is massive but i took the first step.

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