Save time when entering dates and times in Excel

If you regularly log updates, track tasks, or note when something was completed, typing the date and time by hand can be surprisingly slow — and it’s easy to make mistakes.

Instead, let Excel do the work for you.

• Press Ctrl + ; to instantly insert today’s date
• Press Ctrl + Shift + ; to instantly insert the current time

You can even use them together (date first, then a space, then time) to create a full timestamp like:
15/01/2026 09:42

This is perfect for things like:

• Recording when a report was last updated
• Tracking when data was entered
• Keeping an audit trail in shared spreadsheets

Using these shortcuts only takes a second, but across a day or a week they can save a surprising amount of time — and keep your data more accurate too.