Multiple sheets.

Spreadsheets are scary. For decades, I avoided opening Excel and Numbers, fearing getting lost in cells and numbers. My brother is much more at ease in front of a spreadsheet — understandable, as he works in supply chain management — and I’ve often been in awe of his skill of manipulating figures and formulas.

The advent of Google Docs changed my aversion to the spreadsheet. The ability to track anything, and easily collaborate on that tracking from any device, anywhere, made me realize that spreadsheets were more than arrays of numbers and equations; instead, they are easy ways to organize information.

I’ve been thinking about spreadsheets a lot, this month, as we’ve been deep in the minutiae of wedding planning. With just one week until the big day, Google Docs has been instrumental in keeping our thoughts, ideas, lists, and budgets all in order. No one has ever accused me of being a good planner or project manager (my daily work is more abstract and conceptual, rather than operational), but having tools like spreadsheets has made wedding planning easier, more joyful.

Joy, after all, is the point. In one week I will be marrying the woman I love most in the world, and just the thought of that brings me immense amounts of joy. That’s the kind of thing that can’t adequately be captured in a sheet full of figures and formulas.