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Every week brings files, emails, new jobs, and job lists. How much of that is completely different from the work you’ve done? Odds are, not much. A number of our tasks are variants on something.
Don’t reinvent the wheel every single time you start something fresh. Use templates–as starting point for work that is new, standardized documents with formatting and text. As soon as you save another variant of the template, just add, eliminate, or change any data for that exceptional document, and you are going to have the job completed in a fraction of the time.
Programs work everywhere: in word processors, spreadsheets, project management apps, survey programs, and also email. Here is how to use templates from your favorite programs –and how to automatically create documents from a template–so it’s possible to get your tasks done quicker.
Templates take the time to build, and it’s easy to wonder if they are worth the investment. The answer: absolutely. Editing a template takes much less time than formatting something. It is the difference between retyping it, or copying and pasting some text.
That is only one advantage: Using a template means you are not as inclined to leave out crucial information, too. For instance, if you need to send freelance authors a contributor agreement, modifying a standard contract template (rather than writing a new contract every time) guarantees you won’t depart out the crucial clause about possessing the content once you’ve paid for it.
Templates also guarantee consistency. Maybe you send investors or customers regular job updates. Using a template, you know the upgrade will constantly have the formatting, layout, and general structure.
How to Create Great Templates
Not many templates are created equal–and a few things do not require a template. Listed below are a couple of tips to follow.
First, templates should be comprehensive. So err on the side of adding instead of too little, it’s more easy to delete information than add it .
Imagine you are creating a template of your own resume. You would want to list in-depth facts and that means you are going to have.
You always have the option to delete notes that are less-important later on, but you may forget it at the final 25, if it’s not from the template.
Some applications will automatically fill in all these variables for you (more on this in a little ). But if you have to fill in the data by yourself, add some text that is obvious and simple to search for so it is possible to find text that has to be altered without a lot of work.