With the upcoming school year, I was doing some research about different productivity methods so I thought I’d share some of my favorites! Do you have other productivity methods you find useful? 

I. PARTS OF AN EXCEL FORMULA

= : all Excel functions begin with an equal sign 

Function: a function is a predefined formula that’s built into Excel. In this example, the function is SUM which adds all of the values in the cells together. 

Operation: specify what you want to do to the function (in this example, we use the operation * for multiplication). A common example you’re probably familiar with is a mathematical operator (like + for addition, - for subtraction, * for multiplication, and ^ for exponents). 

There are four types of operators: mathematical, comparison, text concatenation, and reference. Since there’s so many, I’ll be doing a post about them in the future (but you can read about them here if you’re interested in the mean time). 

Constant (in this example the constant is 1.06)

It’s a best practice to try to reduce constants as much as possible and instead reference a cell that has that constant inputted. Why? If we used the example above of calculating the amount spent on office supplies and we pretend that our state has 6% sales tax (note: to get the total sales tax you would do the original amount (1.00) + 0.06 for 6% sales tax which is why I did 1.06). But what if you buy your supplies during tax free week and now you don’t have to pay sales tax at all? Since I used a constant in my formula, I’d have to go back by hand and edit the formula wherever the 6% appears. If I referenced a cell, I could change the sales tax to 0% and every other amount would automatically be recalculated.

If we were to redo the formula to get rid of the constant, it would look something like this:

II. READING AN EXCEL FORMULA DEFINITION

Anytime you type a formula, Excel will automatically give you the definition of that formula so if you know how to read a formula in general then you’ll be able to pick up on almost any formula (obviously some formulas may still need some extra explanation, but learning to read the general formula syntax will make it so you don’t have to memorize any formula parts - just follow Excel!). 

Whatever comes after the ‘=‘ is the formula (in this case VLOOKUP)

Everything in the ‘( )’ are the arguments (each argument is separated by a comma)

Arguments NOT in [ ] are mandatory so you need to specify them of the formula will error

Arguments in [ ] are optional so if you don’t specify them the formula will still work

Be careful! Sometimes you don’t get the answer you want because you forgot to specify an optional argument.

III. REFERENCING

Referencing is when you refer to a cell in your Excel formula (in the example at the top, the reference is B2:B5. But there are different types of referencing: 

Relative Referencing: this means that the cell reference will change as you drag the formula up/down or right/left. 

Absolute Referencing: this means that you DON’T want the cell reference to change as you drag the formula up/down or right/left. In Excel, absolute referencing is represented with a $ (you can also hit F4 to cycle through the types of absolute references!)

References are super important because the most common reason my formulas error is because I forgot to reference properly. While they can be confusing, once you see the examples below it’ll make a lot more sense!

A2 means that you want the column and row to change as you drag the formula

$A$2 means that you want BOTH the column and the row to stay the same (in other words, you want it to always reference one specific cell no matter where the formula is on the sheet). This is a really common use for references!

$A2 means that you want the row but NOT the column to change as you drag the formula around

A$2 means that you want the column but NOT the row to change as you drag the formula around

Let’s use a modified version of the supplies example to illustrate. 

In this example (that it is very simple), I only typed the formula in C5 and then copied it down. But because I used the absolute reference ($B$1), so it always referenced the cell that had the tax amount. So with absolute referencing, I can write the formula in only one cell and copy it to hundreds of rows or columns. 

...

Now you know about the parts of a formula, reading a formula, and cell referencing. These basics are a good foundation so you can tackle more complicated things in Excel and even if you don’t, this information is often enough to use Excel simply. If something didn’t make sense in this, please send me an ask! 

Although I make my own examples and write all the explanations myself, I do use sources to fact check myself. You can find those sources here: Parts of a Formula,  Referencing, Overview of formulas. 

Slides are something that are used in businesses, school, or even fun occasions. But an aesthetically pleasing slideshow can be a hard skill to learn and it can be frustrating if you don’t know what you’re doing. Plus sometimes you want your slideshow to be a little extra special compared to the same themes you’ve seen a hundred times over.

Here are some simple tips that take minimal effort, but can help you customize a stellar presentation!

I. Templates

Picking a good template that fits the theme of your presentation is a great starting place for any slideshow. Here are two of my favorite websites to find hundreds of slideshow themes: Slides go and Slides carnival

You can edit any template by going to Slide > Edit Master in Google Slides (you can do this in PowerPoint too!)

In this window, you can edit fonts/colors/design and it’ll apply to any slide that has that template. 

I used an example from Slides go, but if I edited the colors (or even moved, deleted or added shapes if I felt fancy) it would make this basic template be different than other presentations even if someone used the same template as me. Even just editing the colors makes a huge difference! Again, all changes you make in the slide master will automatically appear to all slides that use that template. 

II. Pictures/Graphics

Pictures and graphics can help enhance your slideshow, but you shouldn’t put so many that it’s distracting. Most importantly, they should relate to your content as best as you can. Here’s two websites I use that improved my slideshow graphics: 

Unsplash.com: Unsplash has high quality images that are free to use. I usually enlarge the pictures to make a gorgeous background on my slide. 

Flaticon: Flat icons are my go to in presentations because they help streamline the look of your slides (especially when you have multiple points). You can sign up for a free account and change the colors of any icon!

Here is a slide with images:

And here is a slide with flat icons:

See the difference? 

Although the first slide isn’t too messy in this example (it definitely can get messier in real life with so many different images on one screen), the flat icons can simplify your slide and make it look more cohesive when you have multiple points on one slide. 

III. Colors

It’s important to use colors that convey the emotions or relate to the theme of your presentation. For example, if your presentation is about marine biology, dark blues and mint greens can help convey that theme. If you’re not really good at picking cohesive color palettes a good rule of thumb is to stick to 2-3 colors max in your presentation (this includes the background color - which people often make white, but you could definitely experiment with another color!)

Make sure to use colors that compliment each other or an accent color that contrasts to highlight certain points in your slides! If you have trouble coming up with color palettes I always just Google or you can use Coolors.co to generate color palettes with a hit of the space bar. 

IV. Fonts

There are two different types of font: Serif font and Sans Serif font.

Serif font has the little tick marks (think Times New Roman!) while Sans Serif has the more modern (no tick) clean look. There are some rules of thumb for when you would use one vs. the other, but it’s kind of in the nitty gritty of typography so I won’t get into it in this post (you can read about it here though if you’re interested!). Serif font gives a more traditional, established look while Sans Serif is more modern. So think about your message or the theme before you decide!  

In terms of readability, the rule of thumb is generally serif fonts are better for print (that’s why the New York Times uses it) or for body text because the little ticks help guide your eye. And sans serif fonts are better for titles or text on a screen (often apps will use sans serif font because they’re on a screen!). Here’s another source that explains this in more detail because it can be more nuanced sometimes. 

There are hundreds of combinations of fonts so it can be really hard to find the right pairing, but there’s plenty of people who have suggestions for good font pairings already! Here’s my favorite resource for font pairings (FontPair). 

...

And there you have it! Four easy things that you can do to your slide shows in a few minutes that will help you customize a beautiful presentation! 

With summer around the corner, I love using a simple one page list to visualize some of my tasks/goals so I made this planner for myself and thought I would share. Each color has an unlined and lined option (I just showed one in this post to reduce the post length) and the quality is clearer if you click the image (or you look in the Drive!).  Tag me if you end up using it and if you have suggestions for future printables, please don’t hesitate to message me. If you want another color, I’m happy to customize it. Just send me an ask!

Here’s The Plan (Blue) (unlined and lined included!)

Here’s The Plan (Pink) (unlined and lined included!)

Here’s The Plan (Yellow) (unlined and lined included!)

Here’s The Plan (Green) (unlined and lined included!)