Explanation about my spreadsheet

Hello, to those of you whom I know at Learn Scripture dot net, and to anyone else who may be reading :)

I few weeks ago I promised JDJDJD that I would create a blog post with screenshots explaining how I use a spreadsheet to manage my LS dot net queue.

As I've said before, I never look anymore at the actual queue on the LS webpage. I only use my spreadsheet to decide which passage I should review next.

Now I will insert the first of four screenshots of my spreadsheet. (To be more specific, it's a Google Sheet).

I'm afraid it's a little small. Sorry. But if you zoom in using your browser, you will be able to see the details better.

I'll explain now what each column is for: Column A, "Canon". This is the canonical number of the book from which the passage is taken. For example, Isaiah is the 25th book of the Bible. Column B, "Psg #". I assign to each passage a number so that the whole sheet can be sorted in canonical order. Doing that is important, when I'm considering what new passages to add to my queue. Column C, "Passage Reference". Column D, "Factor for Interval". This is sometimes the average of all the progress percentages of the verses, sometimes it is the progress percentage of the highest or lowest verse in the passage. Column E, "Last Review", i.e., the last date on which I reviewed that passage. Column F is the interval, which I decide on based upon the factor in Column D; Column G is the next review date, Column H is the number of days to the next review.

You can see that there are some cells in Columns G and H which are in red. Here I use Google's conditional formatting. Those columns are formatted to turn red when the date is today or before today. That way I can quickly see what passages I need to review today, or rather on any given day. The spreadsheet in the image, by the way, is sorted on the column "Days to next review".

Column L is the link to the passage. By using that link I don't have to search through the LSN queue; I just open the page and review by clicking the link in my spreadsheet.

Anyone reading this now might be saying, wow, that is way too complicated. I want to quickly say, anyone who has a little spreadsheet expertise could create a much simpler spreadsheet and use it for the same purpose.

By the way, the Date of Next Review is calculated automatically by adding the interval to the Date of Last Review. Here using Control D is very helpful. Once the spreadsheet is set up, it is not that difficult to maintain. Setting it up is what takes time :)

Now I will post another screenshot:

Take note of Luke 11:37-54 and compare it to the first screenshot. I reviewed the passage, changed the date of last review to today. The interval remained at 1 day. But the date of next review is now in turquoise.

My "job" is to each day eliminate all of the lines in red :)

It's a joyful job, really.

One very very great value to having this spreadsheet, is this: on any given day when I'm not able to review all of the passages due that day, I can easily see the next day or even two or three days later which passages I'm "behind" on. You can see an example of this in the screenshot; there are several Isaiah passages which show a value of -1.20 for Days to Next Review. These are passages which are not due today, but were due yesterday.

Using this spreadsheet has eliminated for me the time I used to spend on LSN, wondering, now just what should I work on first? Especially when I had added many, many passages and the queue became way too much to complete in one day, I used to fret about that a lot. That fretting was a waste of time, really, time which I could have spent meditating on God's Holy Word. This spreadsheet for me is simply a foundation upon which I am building a house, to best be able to progress these verses toward 100%. It's of course, of course, not necessarily for everybody. But it might be suitable for a few :) If so, I hope what I've written here helps you.

Now I will post two more screenshots, showing my spreadsheet (parts of it, rather) sorted in canonical order:

There are some cells colored in purple which say "Joosep new". I try to add at least one new verse every day, and this is simply a reminder to me as to where I can easily find one of those new verses.

That's all. On 5 November I'll write another blog post, reporting on what progress I've made in Luke.

May God alone be glorified in all this. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbors as ourselves. Have you ever thought about that? Often church websites will have a slogan, something like, "Love God -- Love Your Neighbor". It occurred to me that to be more accurate, it should be more like, "Love God 400%, Love Your Neighbor 100%". I'm not advocating neglecting the love of our neighbors -- just saying, Jesus gave a FOUR TIMES emphasis to His words about how we should love God. The goal in all of this is that we would truly love Him, rather than ourselves, and memorization is merely a tool towards that end. Any tool can be used for good or for evil. A hammer can build, or it can kill. Memorization can enhance and intensify our love for God, or result in the sin of pride.

Let's all learn to love Him more and more every day! That love then will flow out into our actions toward others.