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Agenda Time Planning

Banged head against Excel wall. Finally broke through.

Posted on 2 mins read
Head shot

Head shot

Head shot

How hard can it be to plan a day

The technology behind spitballing an agenda taking into account start times and duration should be easy. It wasn’t (at least for me and the 0 DDG searches I performed to investigate).

“Go ahead… waste my day.”

Below is the normal sequence of time wasting events:

  1. Flesh out agenda with start times in Excel, text editor, OneNote, etc.
  2. Realize an item was missed or a duration needs to be adjusted.
  3. Waste time mathematically adjusting afflicted (yes, afflicted) subsequent start times.

Behold

A pale horse. The man who sat on him was Death; and Excel followed with him.

I once had a goldfish named Not Invented Here and dedicate the most recent hour of my life with Microsoft Excel to Not Invented Here.

Agenda Time Planning Animation

Agenda Time Planning Example

Save Yourself

Tech Bits

  • The first Start Time in cell A2 can be updated. All other Start Times are calculated.
  • Uses Excel INDIRECT(), ADDRESS(), ROW(), COLUMN(), and TIME() built-in functions.
  • The exact same formula is used in all calculated cells.
  • When using traditional relative references I encountered trouble preserving the formula when inserting new rows. The issue was solved using INDIRECT() and it’s brethren.
  • To change from 24-hour time to AM/PM select the Start Time cells, right-click Format Cells > Number > Time > (Choose Preference)