I told my therapist that I spent my day off working on the spreadsheet of every book I’ve read in the last 4 years and they said “relaxation looks different for autistic people and if that’s what brings you autistic joy, I’m glad you did that.”
Thanks me too, but easy on the autism. Spreadsheets is a perfectly normal hobby, I’ll have you know.
I really don’t have anyone to show this to, so it’s for Tumblr I guess!
I have a stupid spreadsheet which is a backlog of games/movies/shows/comics etc, with dates of when I finish them, and a bunch of other stuff. Absolutely pointless, probably bad for me, all round Terrible Idea.
And recently I added a new feature in - a pretend TV guide:
I’m nearly 40 and when I was young there was a thing called a “TV guide” which your mother would buy in the grocery store line and inside it was a display something like this that would show when shows would be on TV on different channels, so one chart per day.
Of course, being that that’s a silly thing to reproduce in 2026, I’m not going to stick to the schedule, and I don’t have more than one channel, instead I have the Vibe of a TV guide. Because that’s the most important part. The nostalgia, without the downsides.
I build this list (With code not manually each time) by making a list of items, in this case it’s 4 shows and 1 movie. Monday to Thursday get assigned a show, and Saturday gets assigned a movie. For all the other days it picks one of the shows from the other days of the week and puts (Repeat) on the end of them.
Then, using the date and a magic number and a MOD operation I do a sneaky trick to get a psuedo-random number - picking the broadcast time on the day. This is unnecessary, as I don’t listen to it, but it’s important for the “aesthetic” of a TV guide.
Then, I have a random list of other shows/movies, which has another pseudo random number generated that changes over when the week changes. Several of these random shows get put before and after each of the actual shows to watch on the day. The spreadsheet has simple formulas to work from there, adding in the times of the items to make a schedule of shows I am Not going to watch because they aren’t the picked shows, but are there for set dressing. (I also remove the words Season X from them so it’s less messy looking)
Then, by overlaying a bar chart over the top of it with some shading which is built to leave an empty space where the currently selected show is, it makes for a display that makes me happy to look at.
This method accidentally solves one of the problems with “backlog spreadsheets” - that pressure to have to finish things when it’s on a queue. Instead now I have a manageable schedule, with only one episode a day (And not even every day - some days are “repeats”)?
Not only is it no longer a scary task list it helps with something else: Do your days feel the same? Every day the same? Well when I was young it used to be thursday that I would come home and watch Stargate, or some kind of sci-fi. That was Stargate day. And now, my spreadsheet will generate me a schedule of TV, for me to watch an episode a week, so today being Wednesday it is Thunderbird’s day (Which you can and should watch it is completely on youtube) - and now, in a small way, the days feel different to each other, and it’s easier to keep track of time.
Besides that, having a spreadsheet to track a backlog is a terrible idea and Should Not Be Done.
ACK I’M SORRY 😭
I’m counting nouns. like a very normal well adjusted person.
last season i just tracked quali, starting position, finishing position, and the championship standings for both drivers + constructors but i actually have been thinking abt adding in penalty points and maybe dnfs or something like that
i tried to make one for penalties given per race for the whole 25 season but could not figure out a format that was easy to understand lmfao 😭😭
i may try to figure it out today and post it ! we’ll see
Spreadsheets may look “free,” but this blog shows the real cost hiding behind manual errors, missed jobs, and version chaos. Once your team grows, connected field service software simply makes operations faster, cleaner, and way less stressful.
Read more - https://www.fieldpromax.com/blog/field-service-software-vs-spreadsheets
Spreadsheets
An advertisement for eBay came on
while I listen to music.
I suddenly felt myself
get transported to grade school.
Computer class in the mid 2000’s.
I vividly remember
learning how to create a spreadsheet.
We used eBay as a guide to do it.
We searched the site for products
and tracked the spending.
I learned a lot of neat stuff in that class-
most of which I don’t utilize.
I actually miss it.
Written by AprilFool 🐸
2/26/2026
Sometimes I wish I could travel back in time to when I was in 1st grade.
Not to change things - but to secretly take my MS office computer classes more seriously because I want my spreadsheets to do a thing but for some reason my formula comes out as “Error” 😭🙃
telling myself the spreadsheet is fine and normal and short vs the reality of needing to update the spreadsheet already. it’s been like two days.
Last year, I worked with usducktape, the creator of The Island of Dr. Moreau, to create custom playkits in Google Sheets for two special settings: Escape from Planet Aeaea, and Voyage to Brasil. I love how they turned out! Here’s a peek:
These play-kits have the commercial license attached, so they are not available to the public. You can get them by purchasing the games from the links above!
If you’d like to get your own custom play kits, you can commission me! You can take a look at my commission rates here.
Being able to remove all the =QUERY formulas from my spreadsheet and replace them with =FILTER is such a good feeling
do you know shit about Google sheets/Microsoft excel/the libre equivalent/database management?
I really could use some help! I’m even willing to pay you if this falls outside the scope of getting some pointers (or willing to skill trade!) if you think you can help me, shoot me a DM and we can connect over discord or email if that helps
info about my project and where I’m sticking under the cut. thanks!!!!
[[MORE]]I need to create a spreadsheet or otherwise database of members of my bargaining unit.
The most ideal situation would be having some sort of self-hosted and managed database with a UI I can easily use but that’s a tall order so I’ll stick to a spreadsheet.
anyways, I need a way to keep track of all the employees in our unit, their membership status, hire date, building they work in, phone number and email, and a spot for notes about them if needed
I get most the raw data from two different spreadsheets from two different sources with two different formats, so just copy and pasting them is impossible. entries need to be put in manually, at least at first.
an ideal situation for a sheet would be a Google sheets folder with separate spreadsheets (or pages/sheets inside the same spreadsheet) that I can set different permissions on for different people to update as needed
and the last hurdle would be routinely auditing the sheet is a must. being able to search it easily, or compare versions between each other. this part isn’t actually a must, maybe, but being able to quickly add and remove members as people are hired/leave.
currently I have like 12 sheets with different formatting for each and I keep wishing I just had a database that I could click “new entry”, fill out a form, and click save and it’s added. like an employee management software or something.
banging my head on a desk, I’ve never been spreadsheet literate beyond very simple hand made charts and stuff
at this point I’m considering a Google form as my new entry page and just using the generated spreadsheet it makes from the reaponses
So I’m halfway through this Excel course.
I’ve dipped my toes into pivot tables, financial formulas, and charts.
I’m trying to quiet the Age Shamer. She won’t shut the f*ck up about how I should’ve been knowing all this for a couple of decades by now.
Oh, the Age Shamer is one member of my High Council or Inner Critics. More on them later, I guess.
But anyway, I chugging along.
Guys I’m insanely autistic. Like… it’s concerning.
I made a spreadsheet with every single named and seen character in supernatural, ranking and descriptions of the episodes, and a document with settings, references, creatures, lore, etc. so far I’ve only got season 1.
But it gets worse.
Because I am uncultured. And so my plan to culture myself is by consuming EVERY BIT OF MEDIA REFERENCED.
I may die before I complete this. But it will be a valiant effort.
Edit: if this post gets any traction whatsoever I’ll post the sheet/document.
The Architecture of Accuracy: Why Static Dropdowns are Obsolete 📊
A spreadsheet is only as good as the data entered into it. If your Data Validation lists require manual updates every time a new client or product is added, your system is fundamentally flawed.
The Problem:
Static “Source” ranges in Data Validation are the leading cause of “Human Error” in reporting. When the list grows, but the dropdown range doesn’t, data gets missed or misclassified.
The Solution:
Dynamic Array-Powered Dropdowns. By utilizing the # (spill operator) in conjunction with modern Excel functions, you create a self-healing UI.
The Professional Workflow:
✨ UNIQUE: Extract a clean list of values automatically.
🌪 SORT: Keep your menus professional and easy to navigate.
🔗 The Spill Reference: Point your Data Validation to the source cell followed by #.
This ensures that the moment data enters your system, it is immediately available for selection—no manual maintenance required. Stop babysitting your cells.
👇 ASSETS:
📃 Blog: https://scriptdatainsights.blogspot.com/2026/01/excel-dynamic-dropdowns-guide.html
🎞 Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/wa3HQJCx4eo
🛒 Gumroad: https://scriptdatainsights.gumroad.com/l/january-skills-2026
👇 FOLLOW US:
ALTmade another spreadsheet! this time it’s tracking which ancient breeds have what tertiary genes, and then number of tert genes on each species & number of species with each gene. click through to see the whole thing, it became too big to screenshot in full
notes:
work in progress spreadsheet on my feelings on gendered terms, how often i feel them/how im comfortable with them being used/when im okay with them being used
not sharing this bc i want people on here l to memorize or reference it, im just happy with how it’s looking so far and i need to show people my spreadsheet formatting
please appreciate my hours of spreadsheet formatting on my last day of winter break <3
“Spreadsheets can’t solve everything.”
Okay, but sometimes they can. I’ve given up trying to fight with various apps to manage aspects of my life like my financials or TBR. That shit gets a spreadsheet that is simplified down to only what I specifically need. No more fighting through bad user interfaces, abandoned development, ads, subscriptions, features I don’t give a shit about, etc. etc. etc.. That shit gets a spreadsheet.
