All This Time, I Could Have Been Seein’ Things!

Have you ever regularly performed an action for a long period of time, and then suddenly realize there is a much easier way to accomplish it? I feel like this is something that happens to many people that use computers on a daily basis. You discover a short cut key, or a much faster way to do something. Especially in Excel as you find new formulas and quick ways to perform tasks. If you have read my blog, then you know I am a fairly advanced user of Excel, but recently I learned something that was so simple, I was embarrassed that I didn’t know about it. If you have a list with 1000 rows of data and you put in a formula in a new column, I used to put the formula in the top row, and drag the box on the bottom right of the cell down to copy to formula. The annoying thing is stopping at the right spot. The page scrolls down and you try to be careful not to scroll too fast, then you accidentally blow past the last row, then move back up, then down again until you eventually control the mouse well enough the end at row 1000. Instead of playing this game, you could just double click the box on the bottom right of the first cell with the formula and it will automatically copy to the bottom of the list. Brilliant! Finding that has time and again saved me significant hassle and time.

This applies in many other aspects of life. Perhaps you drive the same way to work every day, then one day find out there is a shortcut that is much faster and easier. Maybe you’ve never had the correct form in a sport or game, and if someone just showed you how to properly shoot a basket ball, swing a bat, etc. it would be so much easier. Think about somebody playing wii for the first time. They might swing the wiimote with all their might to hit a baseball, and you could get a better hit sitting on the couch and flicking your wrist. I’d make an argument that it is not as fun to do that, but it certainly is easier. There are even more basic things this applies to. Since I got my drivers license, when I got into the drivers seat of the car, I grabbed the seatbelt with my left hand, pulled it across my body and fully extended my arm reaching to find the receiving end of the seatbelt. If I have had a jacket on, it would be even more challenging. Recently, it just occurred to me to hand the seatbelt from my left hand to my right hand to click it in. I find the receiving end much faster and don’t have to contort my back in the process.

Reflecting on these things makes me wonder… What else in my life could be done differently making the task much easier and less time consuming. Maybe there is a much simpler and faster way to shave or brush my teeth that I never knew about. Maybe there is a trick I am missing to falling asleep at night and sleeping better. Maybe there is something so simple, so terribly obvious that I am missing that could vastly improve my life. Maybe I’ll be 60 years old, and have somebody mention to me, “you breathe funny,” and I find out that all my life I could have been breathing a different way that would have improved my lung capacity for exercise and provided more oxygen to my brain to make me more awake and allowed me to think clearer. Wouldn’t that be terrible to one day found out your life could have been much better?

At the gym, there are trainers you can hire to introduce you to new exercises and give you useful tips and tricks. I overhear trainers giving these tips all the time. “Good job, but if you make this small obvious adjustment, it is easier to lift this weight and will make the exercise more effective.” I try to listen in on these tips because there is a good chance that I am working much too hard to accomplish an exercise that isn’t actually benefiting me in any way. I think we should be able to hire these trainers to give us tips on our daily lives. What if you could hire a professional to spend every moment with you for a week and tell you as your going along how to make everything you do more effective? Hmm… interesting business idea. As Brian Regan puts it, “how could instantly improved vision not be at the top of your to do list?”

Thanks for reading.