Fake spreadsheet that types a figure for every key
A fake spreadsheet across your whole screen, a month of what meetings cost, and each key you press adds one more digit to the bill.
Any key types the next figure. Esc takes you back.
What’s on the fake spreadsheet
Thirteen meetings and one decision
The sheet adds up a month of meetings for one team. There’s the seated standup, a vendor sync the vendor never joined and a video 1:1 between desks 6 m apart. Focus time is on it too, booked over by leadership first. Weeks 1 and 2 are already in, and every key you press adds a digit to the week 3 and week 4 columns. Each figure lands within 4% of the plan, so the totals creep up the way real ones do.
The value side has one line, decisions reached. It sits at zero all month until week 4 books about 400, and its Decisions cell says “One, maybe”.
When the last cell fills
With week 4 typed in, the sheet wipes weeks 3 and 4 and starts again with fresh figures. The file keeps its name, “What our meetings cost (do not forward)”. Along the bottom run five tabs, from “Hourly rates” to “Do not edit” to a Sheet3 nobody has opened.
The fake work screen has this same sheet next to a ticket board and a team chat. In the fake Zoom meeting, a coworker shares it on a call and fills it in himself.
Looking busy with a spreadsheet
Why a spreadsheet
In a 2025 survey of US workers, 15% said they keep a spreadsheet open while they browse. That ties it with the phone held to an ear with nobody on the line, and puts it ahead of the fake meeting, at 12%. Of the three, it’s the one that needs no acting. More of the tricks are in how to look busy at work.
Fake Excel or fake Google Sheets
This sheet dresses like a browser spreadsheet: a green file icon, a row of menus that ends in Extensions and Help, and the cell name over the grid. Anyone after a fake Excel screen wants the same thing, a grid of numbers that looks halfway through a task. From across the room nobody can name the app, only that you’re in it.
On a phone
An iPhone won’t let a web page go full screen, so there the sheet covers the page and the address bar stays put. Tap anywhere to type a figure, and tap Exit in the corner when the meeting you were avoiding is over.
Questions about fake spreadsheets
Is there a fake spreadsheet to keep open at work?
Yes, this one. It fills your screen with a month of meeting costs, and each key you press adds a digit, so the cells keep moving while you sit there.
How do I make a fake Excel spreadsheet look real?
Keep it full screen and keep it changing. Numbers that land a few seconds apart look like data entry, and a grid that hasn't moved since lunch looks like you left with the sandwich.
Can my boss tell it's a fake spreadsheet?
Not from across the room. Up close the rows give it away, starting with a vendor sync the vendor skipped and a birthday card whose mug budget went to the offsite.
Does monitoring software see a fake spreadsheet?
Yes, if your employer records screens, the recording shows it like any other window. It types only when you press a key, so activity tracking counts your own keystrokes and nothing else.