NOTE: This post is repeated from 2011 but the spreadsheets have been updated for 2012. Enjoy!
It’s the start of the new year and the end of my goals series and I have one final present for you: the redone, revamped, ridiculously awesome Writing Progress Spreadsheet. You may remember it from last year but you definitely won’t recognize it. Let me re-introduce you.
The first thing you’ll notice (for 2007 users) is that there are multiple worksheets. The spreadsheet will open to the first worksheet, pictured below, where you will name your projects. Simply highlight the cell where it says “Project 1″, “Project 2″, etc. and replace it with the names of your projects. It will change the titles throughout the entire workbook. I recommend keeping them fairly short–one to two words or an acronym–otherwise they’ll run over on each other.
Along the bottom are your worksheets. There is one for the titles, one for each month of the year and a yearly totals sheet. Choose the month you’d like to go to and you’ll find a worksheet that looks like the one below. On the left, it’s laid out like a calendar, on the right, by day and at the bottom, a graph of your progress.
You will ONLY make changes to the daily section of the spreadsheet. All other areas have functions to automatically add up totals for you. So, for instance, you’ll go to the third day of January and enter the word count for Project 1 (or whatever you’ve renamed it). It adds your word count for today to the total Project word count for the month at the bottom of that column, it also appears in the calendar, which calculates your word count for all projects each day and then gives you a total sum at the end of each week and a total sum for the month at the bottom of the calendar. Note that on the weekly totals, it’s calculated for 7 days so the first week might look a little high, but it’s actually pulling the totals for the last days in the previous month.
Lastly, your final sheet will add up totals for the entire year by project, by month and also a grand total for the entire year.
The cells containing functions are locked to avoid accidentally deleting the function but if you need to make changes, there is no password so just hit enter when it prompts you for one and you should be allowed to make the changes after that. If you come across any bugs, let me know and I’ll do my best to fix them.
I hope this spreadsheet helps you keep track of your writing goals and I hope you fill each and every cell with writerly love.
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Jamie Raintree
Jamie writes what she likes to call everyday fairytale love stories, featuring the little moments in life that are truly magical. She lives in Northern Arizona with her husband and daughter and is currently editing her second novel.
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This looks complicated … but I think I’ll give it a try.
Haha! You know me. It was complicated to make but it should be fairly easy to use (I hope!). Let me know what you think!
Now that I’ve started playing with it, it’s not as difficult as it looks. Thanks.
Awesome! You’re welcome!
I’ll try it.
Thanks!
You’re very welcome! I want progress reports.
Oooooo how pretty! I love what you did with it this year. Hmmmmm wonder how I can apply it to blogging…
It’d be easy enough to write your blogging word count in there. Or just a “1″ for every day you blog. You could keep track of how many blogs you post in a year that way.
That would be pretty cool. Now to just figure out how to work excel.
You’ve saved me a lot of work trying to design my own. I love these types of things, thank you so much!
You’re welcome! I love these types of things too. I’m organized to a fault.
Not the worst trait for a writer, right?
This is incredible. I can’t wait to start using this!
Thank you! Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing Jamie. I do love spreadsheets. And I do like to keep track of my production. Have a great day!
I told you I was a spreadsheet-aholic! Lol!
Love this Jamie! I can’t wait to get my projects up and running on here. One question: how do I add more projects? I love the idea of keeping track of blogging on here too and I have lots of projects that are in the finishing stages of editing, so I need some room for the new ones. I’m an excel illiterate, but I’m trying to learn!
I’m so glad you like it! Unfortunately, adding more projects would mean recoding the entire spreadsheet.
This looks wonderful! I’m just about to tackle several projects that have minimum word counts so this will be very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing with us!
You’re very welcome!
This is a BEAUTIFUL thing! Thank you, Ms. Raintree. It’s fantastic.
You’re welcome! Glad you found it useful.