I'm super geek for writing this, but this method saves a lot of time and is a super accurate way to handle researching, so who doesn't love that?

Here's what I've done:

Basic table stuff:

1. Make a table (or tables for multiple crafts) for each item/trait combination.
2. Have your main researcher and an alt/mule to hold non-researched gear.
3. Track researched items, items held in bank, and items held by the mule with their own identifyer. I use X for researched M for mule and B for bank (plus color codes).
4. Include a row for the total number of items researched and use a different cell color for each number to help you quickly identify which pieces of gear need to be researched next if you are trying to research them equally to make gear sets. (if I have 0 or 1 thing researched, the cell is unhighlighted, at 2 I color it grey, at 3 it's brown, at 4 it's gold, 5 green, 6 blue etc)

Formula for calculating research time

1. When you look at the timer for something you are researching, excel can calculate exactly when it will be finished. Here's the formula I use.

=NOW()+#days+#hours/24

for example, lets say something has 5 days and 10 hours left to research. I would type "=now()+5+10/24"

*note, you can include minutes, the easiest way for me is to round it to the nearest quarter hours (in the example above, if it was 10 hours and 30 minutes, I would simply use 10.5 rather than 10)

2. VERY IMPORTANT: After calculating using the formula above, you need to convert that number to a set value so it doesn't update it with the new "now" each time you open excel. To do this, I just copy the cell, and paste the cell as a value right on top of the cell I just copied.

3. Formatting Cells: I like to format the cells as 'day of the month' 'day of the week' and then 'time' (with a 24 hour clock)
Example: something will be done researching on Wednesday, May 4th at 7:30 am, I format the cell to display "4 Wed 07:30" This provides good information but also doesn't take up too much space.
To do this, you need to format it as a custom date format like this "d ddd hh:mm;@ "
Format all cells in the spreadsheet as explained above before you even start on the rest.

It takes a little time to setup, but it's way worth it to me.
If anybody actually wants to do this and you need additional instruction, I'll try to explain things in more detail if you tell me which part you don't understand.