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Hi Reader,

Welcome to the Google Sheets Tips newsletter #325, your Monday morning espresso, in spreadsheet form!

Finally, an AI invention that has me truly excited...

Behold the AI-powered laundry robot 🤖

Thank you boffins, this is more like it!

How long until we can get one? Imagine what we could all do with those extra hours each week...

In today's newsletter, I'm sharing a piece of advice that a mentor gave me early in my career. It's brilliant in its simplicity and has stood me in good stead for over a decade. Check it out below.

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➜ News

I.
​My friend Kyle Horst wrote an article about how to pair Google Sheets with Google Sites, as a way to effectively organize and showcase data on Google Sites websites.

​Read the article here >>​

II.
Gems are custom versions of Gemini AI that you can create to focus on specialized topics.

This latest update lets you upload reference documents via Google Drive when creating Gems, including Google Sheets files.

​Read more here >>​

(Available for Google Workspace customers with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium add-on.)

➜ Sheets Tip #325: Walk the first row

Early in my career, one of my mentors said to me:

"when you're given a new dataset to work with, one of the first things you should do is walk the first row."

What does that mean?

Since the dataset is new to you, you won't be familiar with the data inside.

You may have some ideas about the analysis you plan to do, but you won't know exactly what's available in the dataset.

This walk the first row technique illustrates what's inside your dataset.

Here's how it works...

• Pick the first row of data in your data.
• Look at the heading and content of each column in turn.
• Pause on each column and understand the data before moving to the next column.

In our Sheet, it looks like this:

And in your head (or out loud!), you're saying to yourself:

• "ok, the first column is a row ID"
• "the second column is the company name"
• "the third column is the industry"
• "the fourth column is the revenue, and it's stated in billions"
• etc.

It forces you to slow down and see what's in your dataset before diving headfirst into the analysis.

Next week, I'm going to show you another tool that you should use immediately after walking the first row, to help you fully understand your data.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to a friend who might enjoy it.

Have a great week!

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. Grandparents: 6 muffins? 4 muffins? At least take 2.​