The Menace of Spreadsheets!

I already knew that people hated spreadsheets--I mean, I've heard countless jokes poking fun at their boring facts and figures, their endless lines of cells, and their ability to reduce practically everything to boxes of meaningless numbers.  That and they're boring.  But, man oh man, I did not know how intense they were.  I always thought that people exaggerated how much time they consumed, how much organization and management they required, but I was oh so very wrong.

This week we've gotten into full swing for outreach and we've been emailing people nonstop, following up with organizations, setting up phone conferences and site visits and profiles... it's been organizational madness.  There are so many different organizations with so many different points of contact, so many different steps to getting them set up on the website and tracking their process, and so many different people that we get shuttled between, it's a wonder we can keep anything straight!  Our outreach tracker document is massive.  Really, really huge.  As in I have to open it up using a different internet client, in case its size causes the program to crash.  It's just a visual reminder of how much hard work we're putting into the site and getting the nonprofit community set up on it.  It can be overwhelming and daunting, but something tells me that once all of those silly little boxes say what they're supposed to say, we'll have a feeling of tremendous accomplishment.  Until then, I'll make sure my face isn't too close to the screen while I frantically scan the cells looking for the next thing that I have to do.  Hopefully I'll be better adjusted by the time I get my next post up next week :)