Making a Spreadsheet is Better than Using One

I get a high building a new spreadsheet and perfecting the formulas. I get the system perfected so I can track and update and project and it’s beautiful. 

I’m convinced it will be my new daily way to track whatever it is. After a few days I almost never use it. 

I used to feel kind of bad about this. Today, another CEO told me he does the same thing. He said he builds new spreadsheets knowing he probably won’t use them once complete. That’s not why he builds them. The process of breaking down the margins and the ratios and ways variables affect each other clarifies the numbers in his head and helps him see things and understand them far better. The act of building the spreadsheet is what transforms his mind and lodges a new model there.

This relieved a bit of a mental burden and helped me understand myself better. I now feel no guilt about hours spent perfecting a spreadsheet I’ll never again use. The building process is the payoff.