At the end of 2023, after watching some of my favorite BookTubers pick books for their monthly TBRs using reading prompts, I decided to make my own, virtual version of a TBR jar using a randomized Google Sheet for the convenience of accessing it on my phone. In the grand scheme of things, it was simple to make, and here’s how I created it in case you’d like to make your own!

Note: To avoid confusion, I want to mention that even though I can view the Google Sheet on my phone, I did not create the spreadsheet on my phone. All the steps listed below were completed on an actual computer. 🙂

Step 1 | Create a New Google Sheet, Listing the Prompts in Column A

First, you’ll need to create a new Google Sheet file. To do this, you’ll need to login to your Google Drive account, and then click the New button in the top left corner of the screen. A few options will appear. Select Google Sheet. A new Google Sheet should appear in a new tab on your browser.

I named the first cell in my spreadsheet (A1) “TBR Jar Prompts“. Underneath that, in cells A2 through A51 (to start; I’ve added and subtracted more since as I’ve chosen monthly TBRs), I listed one reading prompt in each cell. I found prompts from a variety of places, including Pinterest, the BookTube channels I referenced earlier, and even made up some of my own.

Step 2 | Configure the TBR Prompt Randomization Formula

Next, in cell B1, I typed “Current Pick (Type anywhere to refresh for the next pick)” (you’ll see why in a second!) as my column heading.

Underneath that, in cell B2, I constructed the formula used to randomize the prompts. I spent some time Google-searching for a way to choose random cell data, and found this formula setup:

=INDEX(A2:A51,RANDBETWEEN(1,CountA(A2:A51)))

When you type this formula in to cell B2, and then hit Enter, one of your prompts should display in the cell. Please note that the A51 references can be altered to include how many prompts you have. For example, if you come up with 1,000 prompts, you’ll just need to change “A51” in both parts of the formula to “A1001” (because the column header value is in cell A1), and then it should be able to reference all the additional prompts.

Step 3 | Choosing Your TBR!

Now it’s time for the fun part!

To get the randomized prompt cell (B2) to pick new prompts, you’ll need to type anything in a new cell, and hit enter for the prompt to randomize again. This is the only thing I don’t like about how my spreadsheet is set up, but I don’t know of another way to accomplish what I’m trying to do. 😛

To keep things easy to clean up, what I do is type a “1” in cell B3 (right underneath the randomized prompt cell) for my first pick, and hit Enter. In another tab within the spreadsheet, I write down what prompt was chosen. Then, I cut and paste that prompt from the TBR Jar Prompts column (column A) and paste that value into a third tab within the spreadsheet, which lists all the prompts I’ve used this year. I repeat these steps, typing new numbers in cells B4 and onward until I’ve chosen the number of prompts I want. After I’ve selected the prompts, recorded what they are, and moved the used prompts to the separate tab, I highlight cells B2 through B whatever (whichever one holds the last number of prompts I picked) and delete out all the numbers I typed.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed using this spreadsheet to pick my TBR prompts at the end of each month, and I hope this tutorial helped if you’re wanting to try something similar!

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

Do you make monthly TBRs for yourself? Do you choose the books yourself, or do you use a random method like a TBR jar or a spreadsheet like mine? Let me know in the comments!

P.S. If you’d like me to do a follow-up blog post listing some of the prompts I’ve used, let me know!

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀