Now, granted, with some of the new stats on the My NaNo pages (have you SEEN those? Cuz they're awesome!) some of the spreadsheet is superfluous, but nevertheless I'm still using it.
I'll show you the completed one from 2009, since the 2010 once is identical, just not filled out as much since we're only a week into it.
Here's a screenshot:
That's kind of a far away shot, so here's some closer ones:
The yellow days are holidays/birthdays.
The above is where I actually make changes. The document automatically fills in the Red zeroes in the "Words Written" Column. All I have to do is type in the words I wrote that day and everything else is calculated. It also automatically turns green. In the "Over/Under" column you can see how many words I was ahead or behind for that day. So on day 10 you can see I wrote an extra 10 words (it says -10 due to the math involved, but you can see it's green which is good) whereas on Day 11 I didn't write any words, so I was 1667 words behind (red = bad)
The next column is a simple Count Up - it tells me how many words I've written in total up to that point. Then there's the "Total Remaining" column which tells me how many total words I have to write before I reach 50,000
This part of the spreadsheet is just a chart. Mostly I included this because it's a pain to try and see your chart on the website when there's a lot of traffic. Also, I like visible representations. The red bars are what I wrote for that day, the black bars are where I was supposed to be (don't ask me why there's not a black bar for day 30.)
At the top of the Spreadsheet I just keep a running total of how much I've written and how much I have to go, so I don't have to do a lot of scrolling around.
So that's it. It's colorful, which I like, and provides me with a lot of data.
If anyone would like a copy, I'd be happy to email you the blank template. Just send me an email (my email on my profile is up to date)
Anyone else keep a spreadsheet or a NaNo measurement system outside of the website?
21 comments:
I don't have a spreadsheet but I'll definitely make one next year. Yours is pretty cool.
Aside from the website, all I have is my calendar at work. Each day has two numbers on it; the number of words I need to have to stay on pace for 50k and the number I need to get to 100k.
Cool!!! Best of luck with your NaNo writing!
Dan - yeah i have a NaNo calendar as the desktop on my laptop. I look at thing constantly
Nicole - thanks!
So pretty… I love spreadsheets. Thanks for sharing.
Nerd! ;)
I, um, just add my word counts to the total on the NaNo page and leave it at that. I just try to write a little over my daily goal, or more if I need to catch up, each day and just remember I need to hit 50 K by the end. If I think about it much more than that I start to psych myself out.
Holy organized, Batman! Man, were you an engineering major?
My husband charts and graphs EVERYTHING.
The most organized planning I ever do is write lists. (to-do lists, shopping lists...which I usually forget to take) And, those lists are handwritten on whatever scrap of paper is at hand when the urge to write said list hits.
Anyway, congrats on your word count! :)
*hugs*
Congrats! on the Nano success. It helps tobe organized too. I did Nano last year but am really having trouble finding the time this year.
Color me jealous. You are so totally cool Sarah. I love when you do this kind of stuff. Makes me wish I was smaht like you.
Although I'm not doing NaNo, this could be groovy in other applications.
Keep on writing!
Wow this is really nerdy ... which makes it totally awesome as far as I'm concerned!
Oh that is cool. I love spreadsheets, but I always forget to fill them in. lol.
Good luck with NaNo. :)
Whoa. You are SO my hero! I can barely open Excel let alone create a spreadsheet like that.
Good for you! I'm not that organized. I did write down the word count I need to hit each day.
Holly - spreadsheets are full of win, imop
teebore - i like to visually see it. Otherwise i gets all antsy
Lola - Ha! nope. Two years ago i didn't know jack about excel, then i had to teach myself for work. The fact that i can make things pretty makes it fun
Stephen - yeah the organization helps to keep me on track
Anne - it's not so much smart as it is enjoying playing around with pretty colors and fun things that update on their own.
Matthew - Yes! Nerdiness FTW!
Lindsay - i'm obsessive about filling it out. Probably because if i fill it out instead of writing, it still feels like i did something. right? RIGHT???
Talli - i remember the good ol' days when i didn't know ANYTHING about excel.
Alex - ooh yeah, i have that on my desktop as well. I have to check that like a gazillion times a day
You are a genius :)
I've got my own spreadsheet too--mostly because the actual numbers are more helpful to me than the graph the NaNo gives for things like how much extra or too little I wrote--I thought maybe at the end I'd do a summary of 'total for days I worked' and 'days I didn't'--that kind of thing. Plus, like you have--there are days off because it is an OCCASSION and you MEANT to have it off, versus days just nothing really happened.
Then again, I'm a statistician--I totally dig numbers...
Vegas - hah, i think i'm just a person who looks for things to distract me with instead of actually, you know, writing
Hart - WIN! Yeah i'm sure come Thanksgiving there will be a good 3-4 days of no word increase. The key is to try and get way ahead before then
OMG! That's so ORGANISED! Hmm ... don't tell me you're an accountant? LOL!!! Good luck with it this year!!!
Good LORD! This makes me feel SO inadequate. I mean, I just think about writing around 1600 words a day and leave it at that! But I'm woefully behind- which isn't a big deal to me, because my only goal this year was to participate. Even so, I most definitely want to be you when I grow up...
I'm an engineer, so this makes me geek out. A daily pareto with conditional formatting...
Very cool!
- Eric
Jessica - Hah! Nope, just someone who likes to much about on excel
Kodas - LOLOL! It's funny, because you have such and awesome an unique life that i often want to be you!
Eric - mmmmmm, conditional formatting...
Wow, that is mighty impressive (and a lot better than NaNo's official stat counter, since the time difference seems to obscure on which day word counts are set). This is very cool :D
I like the green/red system to make it clear how you're doing too.
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