Kept a spreadsheet of every application for four months and the spreadsheet itself became something I dreaded opening

Started with good intentions — company, role, date applied, status, notes. By month three it had over 200 rows, most just sitting at "applied" with no update, and opening the file felt like reviewing a scoreboard of rejection I hadn't even received yet. Archived it this week and started a much smaller version that only tracks things that actually need action from me: an interview to prep for, a follow-up to send. Everything else lives in my email if I ever need to check. Feels less like I'm quantifying failure now.