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Every week brings task lists, emails, files, and new projects. Just how much of that is totally different from the job you’ve done? Odds are, not much. A number of our tasks are variants on something.
Don’t reinvent the wheel each single time you start something new. Rather, use templates–as starting point for 17, standardized documents with formatting and text. As soon as you save a separate variant of the template add, remove, or change any info for that exceptional record, and you’ll have the new work completed in a fraction of the time.
Templates work anywhere: in word processors, spreadsheets, project management apps, survey programs, and email. Here is how to generate documents from a template — and the way to use templates in your favorite programs –so it’s possible to get your ordinary tasks done faster.
Templates take the time to construct, and it’s easy to wonder if they are worth the investment. The brief answer: absolutely. Editing a template requires much less time than formatting something from scratch. It’s the difference between copying and pasting some text, or retyping it.
That’s only one benefit: Using a template means you’re less likely to leave out crucial info, also. For example, if you want to send freelance authors a contributor agreement, changing a standard contract template (rather than composing a new contract every time) ensures you won’t leave out that crucial clause about owning the content once you’ve paid for it.
Templates additionally guarantee consistency. You send regular job updates to investors or clients. With a template, you know the upgrade will have the formatting, design, and standard structure.
How to Produce Great Templates
Not many templates are created equal–and a few things don’t require a template. Here are a few guidelines to follow.
First, templates must be comprehensive. It is more easy to delete info than add it , so err on the side of adding too rather than too small.
Imagine you are developing a template of your own resume. You’d want to list facts so you are going to have.
You always have the option to delete notes later on, but you may forget it in the final 25, when it’s not in the template.
Some applications will automatically fill in all these variables for you (more on that in a little ). But if you need to fill in the data by yourself, add some text that is obvious and easy to look for so you can find text that has to be altered without a lot of work.