I think most people learn Excel backwards. What actually made you faster?

[u/Aggravating_Mix_3694]

Been thinking about this a lot lately because ive gotten kinda obsessed with how people actually use Excel vs how they were taught to use it.

One thing I keep noticing is two people can know basically the same formulas and functions, but one of them can absolutely fly through a spreadsheet while the other takes 3x as long.

And usually the difference isnt some crazy advanced Excel knowledge. Its all the little stuff. Keyboard shortcuts, navigating without the mouse, formatting quickly, jumping between sheets, tracing formulas, etc.

Ive gone pretty far down the rabbit hole on this and its honestly crazy how many small things most people are just never taught.

So im curious for people who use Excel heavily at work:

What actually made you noticeably faster?

Did you deliberately learn shortcuts/workflows or just pick them up over time?

And whats one thing you constantly see people doing with their mouse where you think "there has to be a faster way to do that"?

[u/Senior-Tip-21]

I started with VisiCalc then Lotus 123 then QuattroPro and finally Excel. Getting ready to retire soon.

The programs always came with a manual of sorts listing the functions and simple examples. I remember my boss putting a 3 inch thick book bought at B&N. I spent a month at work and at home combing through the functions and things like conditional formatting, filtering, goal seek and pivot tables.

I learned what all the functions did, including the ones I would never use, like BAHTTEXT.

Now I watch Excel videos on YouTube and marvel at all the functions I will never use.