How to get a new date when calculating from today plus an integer

Question

I use Google Sheets to calculate my word count & rate for daily writing sessions. I'm trying to come up with a formula that will return the estimated date of hitting a goal, based on my current rate.

For further explanation, my monthly goal is 10,000 words. I enter my daily word count into a new row each day. I have already set up formulas to track my writing rate, and the number of days it will take me to hit the 10,000 word goal based on my current rate. (I also have formulas to track the ideal rate based on the number of days left in the month, so that I can see if I'm ahead of, behind on, or right on schedule.)

What I want to do now is to turn the number of days to hit my goal into a date format (so display "04/12/2020" vs "5.8 days").

Is there a way to add today's date plus the days to goal and get a date back?

Answer 1

The best formula for you to use would be:

=NOW()+[days to hit goal]

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You mention:

...turn the number of days to hit my goal into a date format (so display "04/12/2020" vs "5.8 days")

You also mention in answer:

I used the following formula:

= TODAY ( ) + [days to hit goal]

and then formatted for a date within the cell. It now displays what the estimated date of goal completion is, based on the daily word rate.

The TODAY() formula will -in some cases- give you false results since fractions of a day translate into hours.

As an example:

+-------------------+--------------+
| 4/8/2020          | =TODAY()     |
| 4/9/2020          | =TODAY()+1.5 |
| 4/8/2020 19:31:35 | =NOW()       |
| 4/10/2020 7:31:35 | =NOW()+1.5   |
+-------------------+--------------+

Answer 2

I've found the answer on an older post that I had missed before! I used the following formula:

= TODAY ( ) + [days to hit goal]

and then formatted for a date within the cell. It now displays what the estimated date of goal completion is, based on the daily word rate.