The plan

One number on the front sheet, and the three year timeline underneath it. Eighteen sheets, 287 formulas and a set of macros.

Specification / as recorded

Status: Built and used, 2019 to 2021, last version 10.0
Role: Designed it, maintained it, ran the plan off it
Size: Two workbooks, 40 sheets, about 300 formulas, plus macros
Span: A plan running from eighth grade to twelfth, 2020 to 2025
Built in: Excel, no code beyond what the spreadsheet gives you

Sheet 02 of 03/Shape

How it is put together

The front sheet is a summary. Every goal in the system rolls up into one percentage, and under it each area breaks down into its own parts: the website into backend, front end and design, the Congressional Award into public service, personal development and physical fitness, the SAT into math, math with a calculator, English and writing. You open it, you see one number, and if the number is wrong you can find out why in two clicks.

Everything below that is filled in through the same six column form: goal, resources, priority, target date, status, notes. Having one shape for every kind of goal is what let the summary exist at all. If each area had its own layout there would be nothing to roll up.

Then there is time. A three year calendar with every day laid out and the days that carry a deadline coloured in, and above it a timeline of lanes: tests, internships, the Congressional Award, science fairs, rocketry, TEDx, the website itself, college applications. The calendar answers what is due. The timeline answers whether a commitment is even possible next to the other five.

An empty spreadsheet form headed Collage Requirements Tracker with sections for required tests, recommendations, skills and certificates, each a table of goals — Every goal gets the same six columns: goal, resources, priority, target date, status, notes.

A wide spreadsheet calendar covering 2021 to 2023 month by month, with scattered days highlighted in orange and a few in blue and magenta — With the days that carry a deadline picked out in orange.

Sheet 03 of 03/Program

It was built for more than one person

This is the part that surprised me when I went back through the file. The wording is in the third person all the way through. "Certifications and topics that they need to know." "Specific skills that parents and advisor want students to learn." "Club of their choice."

There is a sheet that distributes goals by quarter and it keys the students by birth year, mapping 2006 to eighth and ninth grade and 2007 to ninth and tenth, so two cohorts run side by side on the same plan. There are separate Congressional Award lanes on the timeline for different students. There is a meeting minutes template with attendees, a timekeeper, discussion, conclusions, and action items with a person responsible and a deadline against each one.

So it stopped being my spreadsheet fairly early and became a program I was running for a small group. The Congressional Award targets in it are the real ones, 400 hours of voluntary public service, 200 of personal development, 200 of physical fitness and an expedition, with concrete examples filled in against each: teaching younger kids, a community park cleanup, taekwondo, internships.

A Gantt style spreadsheet timeline with year and grade header rows and coloured horizontal lanes for each long running commitment. Two lanes have had names painted out — Eighth grade to twelfth, with a lane per commitment: tests, internships, Congressional Award, science fairs, rocketry, TEDx, college applications.