“But We Always Use Excel!”

Every team has that moment.
Someone suggests a better way to plan, and someone else says it: “But we always use Excel.”

It makes sense. Excel feels safe. It’s powerful, familiar, and always there when you need to organise something. Numbers, charts, lists... it does them all beautifully.

But when it comes to seeing your year, it’s not built for the job.

Why Excel feels like the safe choice

Excel has earned its reputation.
It gives you control. You can colour-code, label, calculate, and build your own systems. Everyone in the team knows how to open a spreadsheet and get started.

For budgets, metrics and charts, it’s perfect.
For time-based planning across a year, it starts to fall apart.

Where Excel breaks down for long-term planning

Planning in Excel sounds neat at first: months across the top, projects and departments down the side, coloured cells to show what’s happening when.

But then reality sets in.

  • You’re scrolling endlessly to see the rest of the year.
  • Cells shrink and stretch until you lose context.
  • Colour coding becomes a guessing game.
  • Sharing leads to version chaos and people complain they can't read it.
  • Editing is awkward and fragile; one wrong sort and everything moves.

Before long, the calendar you built for clarity becomes something you avoid opening.

A spreadsheet can count your year, but it can’t help you see it.

The myths that keep us stuck

We hear these all the time:

  • “We’ve always used Excel.”
  • “Everyone knows how to use it.”
  • “A calendar tool is too complicated.”
  • “It’s not worth changing what works.”

But here’s the truth. Excel isn’t working for this kind of planning.
It’s like using a calculator to draw a map. Technically possible, but unnecessarily painful.

What happens when you can see your year clearly

When you move your plans out of a spreadsheet and into a true year view, everything changes.

You see patterns and gaps instantly.
You can align your team at a glance.
You can plan long term without losing the detail.

Decisions get easier because the whole picture is visible.

And suddenly, leading the year feels calm again.

How to step away from Excel

You don’t need to throw out what you’ve built. Just reshape it.

Here’s a simple path forward:

  1. Decide on your categories.
    Figure out want to track. Departments, categories, projects, events, campaigns, leave... These become your calendar layers.
  2. Save your Excel file.
    Keep a backup so you have a clear reference.
  3. Extract your events.
    Use Copilot or ChatGPT to pull your Excel data into a clean list. Try a prompt like:

    This spreadsheet is a year calendar. I need to output 4 ICS files. Calendars are: HR, Business Development, Finance and Marketing. Events are all day or multi-day. For each event, extract the title, start and end dates.

  4. Create ICS files.
    Export one ICS file for each category so they can be easily imported.

    Here's an ICS file. Convert all the start & end dates to one year later in 2027, but all starting on the Monday. eg. 4 Jan 2026 would be 3 Jan 2027 Filename is the same but ending in 2027.ics

  5. Import into your new Microsoft or Outlook calendars.
    Each category becomes a clear visual layer across the year. This gets reflected in Year Glance in realtime.

The after moment

And then, clarity.

No scrolling and chunky and clunky cells and Excel ribbon. No colour chaos. No wondering who changed what.

You have one simple view that everyone can see, always synced, up to date, always clear.

Your team can finally plan with confidence and move through the year in rhythm.

Closing reflection

Excel will always have its place. It’s brilliant for numbers. But when you’re planning time, milestones and movement, you deserve a tool that brings your year to life.

You don’t have to give up structure. Just the struggle.

See your year clearly and lead it with confidence.