EXCELlent

Today's class began with a class wide quiz, in which the class collaborated to solve the quiz questions displayed on the projector. Through our combined efforts, the class was able to easily score a 100%.

Mark then gave the class a brief preview of Excel, wherein he hurriedly gleaned over the program's functional capabilities.

Mark's demonstration was then followed by a lesson on how to manually fill out and calculate a finance sheet. Through this mathematical exercise, I was able to learn of the complex, computational side of the business world as well as a get a clearer idea on the wide array of factors that must be monitored when operating a profitable hotel. 

Later, we practiced with Excel with Mark. Mark taught us a long list of useful commands, such as how to quickly calculate formulas and create easy to read spreadsheets. I've learned and relearned the basics of Excel at least three times before, and each time I forgot how to use the application almost immediately after. Hopefully, this lesson will stick, as Excel play's an integral role in the business world due to it being able to easily to allow users to  record and analyze financial data. 

Office hours were the same as usual, although today I spent my time working on a variety of tasks, rather than focusing on just one. These assignments included an Excel expense sheet that was modeled after my CHESS Hotel; a report template; and a four page financial report detailing the financial report situations of my CHESS hotel. On top of all these assignments, I also had two quizzes to review for and blog to write. 

Needless to say, I was unable to finish all of my work and was forced to clock in some overtime in Robert Purcell's Community Center's computer lab. I soon found out that other students had the same idea; by the time I arrived at the computer lab, the room was already filled the Hotel Operations students-it was as though we had never left office hours in the first place. 

The lesson of the day was time management--one must be able to balance one's priorities and schedule themselves appropriately if they wish to be successful and stress-free. Since most of my assignments are due late tomorrow evening, I must plan accordingly, so that I may complete my work both on time and correctly. Even though tomorrow's the Fourth of July, I planned to be cooped up in the computer lab all day, trying to finish my work. Although this outcome may seem undesirable now, it is a better alternative to rushing right before everything is due. All I can do now is work as hard and productively as I can.