Prepping Your Old Spreadsheet for a Clean CSV Import

Most of us started logging in a spreadsheet. It's free, it's familiar, and it does the job for a while. Then the tabs multiply, the dates get messy, and you're scrolling through three years of rows wondering where last spring's bloodwork went. Moving that history into a proper tracker is worth doing, but a clean CSV import takes ten minutes of prep first. Here's how to do it without losing a single entry.

Why bother prepping before a CSV import

A spreadsheet you built for yourself doesn't follow any rules. Columns drift, units get mixed, and half the dates are typed as text. That's fine when it's just you squinting at it, but an import reads your file literally. If the columns don't line up, entries land in the wrong place or get skipped.

The fix is simple: spend a bit of time shaping your file into something predictable. Think of it as laying your history out flat on the table before you file it away.

Get your dates into one format first

Dates are where most imports fall over. You might have 01/03/24 in one tab and March 2024 in another, and a few rows where someone typed 3rd.

• Pick one format and stick to it across the whole file, ideally year-month-day.
• Split date and time into separate columns if you log both.
• Fill in any blank dates you can recover from context, and delete rows you genuinely can't place.

A row with a proper date is worth keeping. A row with ?? in the date column is dead weight.

One table, one type of record

The biggest mistake is cramming everything into a single sheet. Weight in one column, a blood test result in the next, a measurement three columns over. That structure doesn't survive a CSV import.

Instead, split your history into separate tables by what's being recorded:

• Weight entries, one row per date.
• Body measurements, one row per date, one column per measurement.
• Bloodwork results, one row per test date, one column per result as the lab printed it.
• Phases, one row per phase with a start and end date.

Each table gets its own clean header row. No merged cells, no colour coding, no notes in the margins. Just columns and rows.

Keep your bloodwork history exactly as printed

When you move bloodwork history across, copy the numbers and units straight from the lab report. Don't round them, don't convert them, and don't add your own commentary in the cell. The tracker stores what you type and shows it back to you, nothing more, so the cleaner your source data, the more useful your side-by-side comparisons will be later.

If you've got test dates scattered across different sheets, gather them into one table with a date column and a column for each result. A few minutes of copy-paste now saves you hunting for a result in six months.

Check your columns before you import

Before you export to CSV, run through a quick checklist:

• Every table has a single header row at the top.
• No blank rows in the middle of your data.
• No formulas left in cells, just values.
• Consistent units within each column.
• No stray commas inside text fields, or the file will split in the wrong place.

Open the CSV in a plain text editor once you've exported it. If it looks like tidy rows of values, you're good. If it looks like a wall of text, something went wrong in the export.

What happens once it's in

Once your CSV import is done, your history sits in one place instead of five tabs. Weight and measurement charts fill themselves from what you entered. You can log new bloodwork from different test dates and compare your own results side by side over time, exactly as the lab printed them. Your phases and check-ins show up on the calendar, with reminders and a calendar feed for the dates you care about.

Everything is encrypted at rest, and you can export all your data or delete your account whenever you like. Registration only needs an email and a password, and you get an anonymous username automatically, so no real name goes near it. There's an optional read-only dashboard link you can share with someone you choose, and it's free during early access.

A quick word on keeping the habit

Once your old spreadsheet is in, keep the logging habit simple. Add entries as you go rather than batching a year at once, and use the CSV export every few months as a backup. If you ever want to take your records to your own doctor or clinic, you've got a printable summary report ready to go.

The move itself is the hard part, and it's a one-off. Tidy the dates, split the tables, check the columns, and your whole history comes across intact. Then you can close that spreadsheet for good. Create a free account and bring your history with you.