1. Stop Being a Human Parser. Start Being a Data Architect
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2025 10:24 am
The biggest shift is realizing your job isn't to meticulously transcribe data; it's to design the structure that data will flow into.
The Old Way: You get a list, you open a spreadsheet, and you start dragging items in, trying to figure out columns as you go.
The New Way: You first visualize the perfect, clean, structured output. What columns do you absolutely need? What data types? What are the precise categories? Then you figure out how each piece of your messy list maps to that pre-defined structure. This "output-first" approach saves you from building a wobbly data house with no foundation.
2. Embrace the Power of Patterns, Not Individual Items.
Your lists, even the messy ones, usually have hidden patterns. The old way treats every list item as a unique snowflake. The new way finds the common thread.
The Old Way: "Okay, this line has a date, then a product, then a comment. Copy brother cell phone list the date here, the product there, the comment..." (Repeat 500 times).
The New Way: "Ah, I see a date pattern (DD-MM-YYYY) followed by a product name, separated by a colon. I can write one formula or one script that extracts all dates and all product names automatically." Learn to love TEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER, FIND, MID, and especially REGEXEXTRACT in your spreadsheet software. These functions are your secret weapons for pattern-based extraction.
3. Let the Machine Do the Grunt Work. You Do the Thinking.
Why are you still doing tasks a computer can do in milliseconds? Your brain is for problem-solving, not repetitive data entry.
The Old Way: You get a list, you open a spreadsheet, and you start dragging items in, trying to figure out columns as you go.
The New Way: You first visualize the perfect, clean, structured output. What columns do you absolutely need? What data types? What are the precise categories? Then you figure out how each piece of your messy list maps to that pre-defined structure. This "output-first" approach saves you from building a wobbly data house with no foundation.
2. Embrace the Power of Patterns, Not Individual Items.
Your lists, even the messy ones, usually have hidden patterns. The old way treats every list item as a unique snowflake. The new way finds the common thread.
The Old Way: "Okay, this line has a date, then a product, then a comment. Copy brother cell phone list the date here, the product there, the comment..." (Repeat 500 times).
The New Way: "Ah, I see a date pattern (DD-MM-YYYY) followed by a product name, separated by a colon. I can write one formula or one script that extracts all dates and all product names automatically." Learn to love TEXTBEFORE, TEXTAFTER, FIND, MID, and especially REGEXEXTRACT in your spreadsheet software. These functions are your secret weapons for pattern-based extraction.
3. Let the Machine Do the Grunt Work. You Do the Thinking.
Why are you still doing tasks a computer can do in milliseconds? Your brain is for problem-solving, not repetitive data entry.