I never thought a humble spreadsheet would end up being my life coach—but here we are.
Like most people, I used to see spreadsheets as boring grids of numbers and formulas. Just something you open when your boss says, “Can you track this?” or when you’re neck-deep in a work project trying to make sense of a hundred moving parts.
But one day, something shifted. I was building a spreadsheet to track a big client project—deadlines, responsibilities, progress updates, the works—and I realized: this little digital box of rows and columns had some surprisingly deep wisdom to offer.
Lesson 1: What gets measured, gets managed
This is classic spreadsheet wisdom—and pure life truth. Once I started tracking tasks in that spreadsheet, everything became clearer. No more wondering who was doing what or what was falling behind.
I wasn’t just “hoping the project would stay on track,” I was literally watching it unfold line by line. The moment I started seeing the data, the fog lifted. It turns out, vague intentions don’t get results—but clear tracking does.
Lesson 2: Consistency beats intensity
My spreadsheet didn’t care if I stayed up until 2 a.m. one night doing a sprint of work. It rewarded steady, reliable progress across the board. The teams that updated their rows daily? Gold stars. The ones who checked in once every two weeks in a panic? Not so much.
Life’s kind of like that—success is less about occasional bursts of greatness and more about steady, faithful effort.
Lesson 3: You can always undo
Made a mistake? Entered the wrong due date? Assigned the wrong person? No problem—just hit “Undo.” Life has its own version of Ctrl+Z. Sometimes we mess up, but that doesn’t mean it’s over.
You can backtrack, apologize, realign, or even start over. Spreadsheets are forgiving, and so is life, if you let it be.
Lesson 4: Every cell matters
One missed update might not seem like a big deal. But when it becomes a pattern, the whole project falls apart. Life works the same way. Ignoring one responsibility, brushing off one conversation, skipping one planning session—it might feel small, but it adds up.
Every piece matters.
You can’t ignore parts of your life and expect the whole thing to function smoothly.
Lesson 5: You’re the one in control
At the end of the day, a spreadsheet doesn’t run itself. You decide what to track, what formulas to apply, and what results you want to see.
Life’s the same way. You’re in charge. If you don’t like the outcome, change the input. If the system isn’t working, adjust the formula. Don’t like where you’re headed? Rewrite the plan.
So yeah, maybe I’m a little spreadsheet-obsessed. But who knew that a bunch of digital boxes would end up teaching me more about leadership, clarity, and personal growth than half the business books I’ve read.
Life’s a lot like a spreadsheet—it’s messy, full of formulas that sometimes break, and always a work in progress.
But when you approach it with intention, curiosity, and just a little nerdy enthusiasm, it starts to make a lot more sense.
Onward 🫡
If you enjoyed reading this and want to show your support, you can buy one of my non-fiction and children’s books at edgarescoto.com.
