Make excel able to calculate the data by using highlighted cells.

**Chango99** · 01-26-2010, 09:36 PM

I'm trying to make an excel to keep track of my time spent on things. I am trying to spend more time being productive so i'm hoping this will help me realize how much time I am spending being unproductive so I can change that habit. Ironically, I've wasted a few hours being "unproductive" making this excel.

Anyway, the attachment is what I made. It's not at all complicated, it was just me messing around. Any suggestions on how to improve it somehow? It has no formulas or inputs that will change anything, which is what I want to do. I have basically no idea how to work excel though. What I want, if it's even possible, is excel to calculate the total hours of productivity, unproductivity, and neutral at the end of each day by calculating each specifically highlighted cell, each cell being 30 minutes, and making it show at the end.

A bit hard to plain, take a look at the excel and you will understand. It probably looks dumb and over simplistic to veteran excel users.

**Chango99** · 01-28-2010, 10:25 PM

Bumping this.

**teylyn** · 01-29-2010, 12:57 AM

Hi,
from the lack of response you may be able to estimate the difficulty of your question. I think you're approaching this the wrong way. Set up a table with

date ....start time .......duration ........ task

and enter each task into a new row. Then you can use pivot tables and other tools to report on the data. You may even be able to create a report that looks like the sheet you've posted.

**table83** · 01-29-2010, 02:45 AM

Can't be done off of colors, but you could do something like rate each column using something unique, and then countif at the end. I've attached how my teachers did it last semester. Scroll to the bottom and you will see how they added up the time for each class.