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Each week brings task lists, emails, files, and new projects. Just how much of that is completely different from the job you have done? Odds are, maybe not much. Many of our tasks are variants on something we’ve done countless times before.
Do not reinvent the wheel every single time you start something fresh. Use templates–as starting point standardized files with formatting and text. Once you save another variant of the template add, remove, or change any info for that unique record, and you’ll have the job.
Templates work everywhere: in word processors, spreadsheets, project management apps, survey platforms, and email. Here’s how to use templates from your favorite apps–and to automatically generate documents from a template–so you can get your common tasks done quicker.
Templates take time to build, and it’s easy to wonder whether they’re 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 is not the only advantage: Using a template means you are not as likely to leave out key info, also. For instance, if you want to send freelance authors a contributor arrangement, changing a standard contract template (instead of writing a new contract each time) ensures you won’t leave out the crucial clause about possessing the content as soon as you’ve paid for it.
Templates additionally guarantee consistency. Maybe you send regular project updates to investors or customers. With a template, you understand the update will have the exact same formatting, layout, and standard structure.
How to Produce Great Templates
Not all templates are created equal–and a few things do not require a template. Listed below are a few guidelines to follow.
First, templates must be comprehensive. So err on the side of including rather than too small, it’s easier to delete info than add it .
Imagine you are creating a template of your own resume. You would want to list in-depth facts about your responsibilities and accomplishments, so you are going to have all the info you need to submit an application for almost any job.
You can always delete less-important notes on, but you might forget it at the final 25, if it is not in the template.
Some tools will automatically fill in all these variables for you (more on that in a bit). But if you have to fill in the data by yourself, add some text that’s obvious and easy to look for so it is possible to find text that needs to be changed without much work.