Thread: Might I Be Spending Too Much Time on Excel?

I'm an office worker/lawyer whose firm does not provide a proper case management and document production system.

I eschew inefficiencies in my document production, scheduling and client tracking. So I find myself spending a whole lot of time learning excel and vba to ultimately yield positive results.

However, I wonder if I spent the time I am investing in learning excel and vba and applying it to my job to merely plodding along like everyone else if there would be a net gain in my productivity. Perhaps the time will soon come where I have more or less perfected my system, in which case, I guess it will all be worth while, if I am not fired by then.

I've thought about sharing what I've been doing with the management of the firm, but I fear that they might disable vba capability within excel and word and outlook if they find out.

(I have yet to implement vba in outlook to increase my productivity, but it is inevitable. I don't have outlook on my home computer where I do a lot of my macro development).

Does anyone else have similar work experiences?

Yes , if you develope anthing for work do not expect any reward as it is their property

If I worked for a company that reacted to the development of a more efficient system by disabling its use, I think I'd leave. That sort of company is unlikely to thrive.
Whilst I don't expect to be rewarded for creating more efficient systems at work, I have always found that the users - and ultimately managers, who tend to like a happier more productive workforce - are happy to have them.

Spend too much time using Excel? How could that be!?


Before sharing, I think you should weigh up what it is you actually want to do for a living, and what you want to get paid for, and how much time you want to spend supporting colleagues using a tool you have developed for yourself.

You may find that developing and supporting your Excel spreadsheets ... for others to use ... becomes a burden, hard though it is to accept.

I spent 13 years working for a bank as an IT Systems Manager. In that time, I developed lots of spreadsheets using relatively advanced (at least for me, then) formulae and VBA to manage overtime, expenses, budgets, SLA trackers, and so on. They were very effective, if I say so myself, but documenting them and the process(es) to use them wasn't so much fun but necessary in order to delegate to my team and share with others.

So, if you are considering a move to "software development", way to go. But, if you want to be paid to be a lawyer, maybe limit your time and enthusiasm. Did I just say that?


Regards, TMS

You could always develop a tool in excel to track your time spent developing, the time spent doing the task manually(per task), the time spent after you enhaced the process (per task), and then compare the three to determine at what point a return on time invested will occur.

That would be an effective use of your time, yes? It would give you something to show that your time spent improving a process is worthwhile. And if it doesn't show that, simply delete the offending analysis workbook and pretend it never happened.

To make it truly effective, you could include your hourly rate and the hourly rate of the personnel doing the tasks. This will accomodate the fact that your time may be worth more or less than the time of the person(s) actually doing the task.

Hi,

You are better off doing it in Excel than some other product. I've seen too many CEO's or decision makers chose the salesman or marketing material of products that never work correctly. I've actually learned and used more dead products than ones that are still alive and being updated. Excel is a standard in the industry and should survive for at least another 5 years. I believe that cloud computing and sharing documents on the net is the next jump. Security then becomes a concern. Mobile devices and slate/ipad devices seem to also be on the upswing. Buy a Windows Mobile 7 device that can share your office docs.

I think you are better off being able to do VBA when more and more devices talk to each other (5 years from now) than leaning it from scratch.

On the other hand - don't lose your day job that brings in some bucks.

Originally Posted by romperstomper

Whilst I don't expect to be rewarded for creating more efficient systems at work, I have always found that the users - and ultimately managers, who tend to like a happier more productive workforce - are happy to have them.

I don't expect to be rewarded in the sense of my employer paying me for a spreadsheet, but I do think employees who can automate processes, eliminate errors, and create more efficient systems should be rewarded. Essentially, you're allowing them to do the same work with fewer people. My personal belief is that should be recognized (just as a top sales person gets more commissions for doing exactly what they're supposed to do, but doing it better than other employees), but I know that's often not how it really works.

Originally Posted by darkyam

I don't expect to be rewarded in the sense of my employer paying me for a spreadsheet, but I do think employees who can automate processes, eliminate errors, and create more efficient systems should be rewarded. Essentially, you're allowing them to do the same work with fewer people. My personal belief is that should be recognized (just as a top sales person gets more commissions for doing exactly what they're supposed to do, but doing it better than other employees), but I know that's often not how it really works.

I totally agree....it has happened to me...after some time, people just dont realize that you are putting in so much effort to streamline the process. They just take it as a usual day-to-day stuff...this affects your morale at the end...

problem is once you do something,no one else bothers they just use what you implement, then come carping to you that it doesn't work, usually because they have over written some function or not enabled macros, or say source data has changed its format . because they cant be bothered to learn it makes your life depressing.So stuff i do now is only for my own use ,or a select few who at least try to understand what is happening.the rest can plod away to their hearts content and wonder why some of us can do 2 to 10 x the stuff they can achieve in a day.

Agreed Martin. I've written a number of tools for different groups of people in my organisation. They eventually became a right royal pain in the bum to the point where I've had to refuse to support most of them any more.

Dom

@Dom:

became a right royal pain in the bum ...

That was what I was trying to say, though not quite so bluntly

becomes a burden

Regards, TMS

Its allways enjoyable to solve puzzles.. I will give up when i find a use for AREAS()

	A	B	C	D	E
1
2	=AREAS((B2:D4,E5,F6:I9))
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

I often feel the need to count areas,it is too laborious to add them up mentally!