Tag Archives: Problem Solving

Skip Non-Sequential Problems

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Most people enjoy a good challenge, and few people like leaving problems unsolved. The vast majority of driven people are perfectionists and cannot accept failure in any form. Face a problem, big or small, and it must be solved.

Okay, I can appreciate that. Problems should be solved. But the key question few people ask when facing a problem is: When? If a solution is prerequisite to the next task or nearing an impending deadline, then you should face the problem immediately. Without question.

If the problem is independent from other tasks, has no deadline before any other task, and plays no role in a task sequence, then seriously consider putting it off until later. Perfectionists get far too preoccupied with solving problems that are often insignificant compared to the other tasks that could be accomplished through the same energy invested in finding a solution. It makes no sense to spend ten hours solving one problem when you could tackle a dozen other tasks in the same timeframe.

I am not saying you should avoid the problem altogether; I’m merely suggesting that you mitigate risk by moving on and tackling the lion’s share of tasks first before re-approaching the single problem task that could possibly suck your time dry.

The Power of Spreadsheets and Accelerated Systems

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Monotony and redundancy are not in my vocabulary. I refuse to be bored. Wasting time on repeat tasks is unacceptable. Sick of doing the same thing everyday? Optimize systems that perform repetitive tasks for you.

ExcelI worked for Lions Gate Films in 2008. Like most movie studios, they had interns manually entering box office data from Box Office Mojo to fill out research and market decks. It took between three and five hours to profile a small handful of films across international territories. Through Microsoft Excel, I crafted a formula to pull and format all of that data with a single copy and paste. Hours of work hacked down to mere seconds. To my knowledge, that spreadsheet template is still being used three years later.

No tool has earned me more reverence in the workplace than Excel. With over 340 functions and a limitless combination of formulas, Excel is one of the most robust problem-solving weapons in your software arsenal. If the problem is complicated enough and the data set large enough, I guarantee Excel has a solution.

Most people are afraid of it. Spreadsheet formulas are an abstraction of algebra, riddled with nested parenthesis, absolute and relative cell references, and a dictionary full of possible function combinations. I’ve had a cell formula 296 characters long that took me an afternoon to engineer and revise (a single extra parenthesis was breaking the whole thing!). Few people can rationalize the effort or focus that hard. But sometimes, it’s necessary. Engineer the right formula and you can save hours (or days even) on setting your computations straight. In addition to time saved, you can solve your problems with greater accuracy and ease.

Do not be afraid of Excel. Embrace the power. When you have a problem you want to solve, google Excel functions that can help you get where you need to go. I only know a dozen functions off the top of my head; I can search for the rest. Understand the fundamentals of Excel, and there will be no bounds.

People who understand spreadsheets are better situated to rule the world. Trust me: it’s worth learning. I even argue that high school math teachers should cover spreadsheet language as modern arithmetic, but that’s another post entirely.