Why our chapters stop at about forty minutes
Attention, lunch breaks and the moment people press pause (sample).
Learn one work skill, twenty minutes at a time
Brightfold Academy (sample) makes short video courses in spreadsheets, SQL, charts and plain writing. Every chapter fits a lunch break; pause anywhere and pick up where you stopped.
Spreadsheets for real work, 9 chapters, 18 exercises
6:10:00
0:00:00
Getting around
0:22:00
Daily formulas
1:10:00
Messy data
1:51:00
Lookups
2:43:00
Pivot tables
3:29:00
Charts
4:07:00
Dates and times
4:38:00
Small automations
5:22:00
Final project
Paused at 3:01:12 in Pivot tables. A sample learner’s progress (sample).
Resume from 3:01:12
Courses, drawn to the same clock
Each bar is one course on one scale, a segment for every chapter. The longer the bar, the more video there is to watch.
Running times and courses (sample). Example prices: one course, yours to keep.
Inside one lesson
A lesson is 25 minutes in four parts, always in the same order, so you know when you can stop.
0:00
Watch
8:00
Try it
20:00
Check
23:00
Notes
0:00
Watch
An instructor shows one technique on a real file, start to finish, in eight minutes or less.
8:00
Try it
You repeat it on the practice file that comes with the lesson. Captions and the transcript stay open beside you.
20:00
Check
Three short questions. Get one wrong and the video jumps back to the moment that explains it.
23:00
Notes
A one-page summary to download, and the next lesson waiting where you left off.
How long a course takes
Spreadsheets for real work is 6 h 10 min of video. With the exercises, plan on about nine hours. Here is how that fits into a week.
20 minutes, every weekday
about 6 weeks
Two lunch breaks a week, 40 minutes each
about 7 weeks
One hour on Saturday mornings
9 Saturdays
A free weekend, 4 hours a day
two weekends
Access never runs out, so a busy month costs you nothing.
The people on the videos
Instructors who used these skills at work for years before they taught them, and who mark your exercises themselves.
Hana Kovač
Spreadsheets, charts
Eleven years as a finance analyst (sample)
Marcus Ade
SQL basics
Data engineer at a delivery firm (sample)
Ellen Shaw
Writing at work
Former newspaper sub-editor (sample)
Tomás Rey
Bookkeeping
Runs a bookkeeping practice for shops (sample)
Plans and prices
Pay for one course, or for everything by the month. Every plan includes captions, transcripts, practice files and marked exercises.
One course
$29–59 once
- The course for good, with updates
- Instructor feedback on the final exercise
- Certificate of completion
All access
$19 a month, or $180 a year
- Every course, new ones included
- Pause the plan for up to three months
- Cancel by email, any time
Teams
$14 a seat a month, from 5 seats
- A progress report for the team lead
- One invoice for your employer
- A live question hour each month
Example prices. We send a payment link by email once your login is set up; nothing is charged on this site.
Questions before you start
Do I get a certificate?
Yes, a certificate of completion with the course name and hours once you pass every check and the final exercise. It is not an accredited qualification.
Are there captions?
Every video has edited captions and a full transcript you can search, and you can play it at 0.75 to 2 times speed.
Can I study on my phone?
Yes. Lessons play in any modern browser; practice files open in the free spreadsheet and database tools we link to.
What if the course is not for me?
Write to us within 14 days and we refund the course fee (sample policy).
How do I enrol?
Send the form on the contact page or call us. We reply with your login and payment link within one working day (sample).
Study notes
Take notes by hand, even for a spreadsheet course
Writing a formula out once helps you remember it longer than copying it (sample).
How we record a lesson
One microphone, one real file and a script that fits on a page (sample).
Watch the first lesson of any course, free
Tell us which course and we email a login for its first chapter. No card, no trial that turns into a subscription.