When working with Excel spreadsheets there are four steps I always go through before starting with anything.

First off what I do is apply filters. With big tables there is always some filtering needed — Under Home tab and Editing section choose Sort & Filters and then click on Filters.

The second step is freezing the panes. This gives possibility to see the column headers while you are scrolling down. Freeze Panes are under View Tab and Window Section.

Thirdly I do a bit of formatting. I select all the data by holding ctrl and pressing A and give to the data the same font and size. This makes the table visually better to work with.

Fourth and last step is hiding unneeded columns. You can also delete the columns, but to be safe its better to hide them as you might need them later. Choose the columns, right mouse click and choose Hide.

Now you can start working with the excel table