Sample employee performance review from performance summary example , image source: www.slideshare.net
Every week brings documents, emails, new jobs, and task lists. How much of that is different from the job you have done? Odds are, not much. A number of our tasks are variants on something we’ve done hundreds of times before.
Don’t reinvent the wheel every single time you start something fresh. Instead, use templates–standardized documents with formatting and text as starting point. As soon as you save a version of the template, just add, eliminate, or alter any data for that record that is unique, and you are going to have the job.
Programs work anywhere: in word processors, spreadsheets, project management apps, survey platforms, and email. Here is how to use templates and the way to automatically generate documents from a template–so you can get your common tasks done quicker.
Programs take the time to construct, and it’s easy to wonder if they are worth the investment. The answer: absolutely. Editing a template requires far less time than formatting some thing. It’s the distinction between copying and pasting some text, or retyping it.
That’s only one advantage: Using a template means you’re less inclined to leave out crucial info, too. For example, if you want to send freelance authors a contributor arrangement, changing a standard contract template (rather than composing a new contract every time) ensures you won’t leave out that crucial clause regarding owning the content as soon as you’ve paid for it.
Templates additionally guarantee consistency. You send regular job updates to customers or investors. With a template, you know the update will always have the same formatting, layout, and general arrangement.
How to Produce Fantastic Templates
Not many templates are created equal–and some things don’t need a template. Here are a couple of guidelines to follow.
First, templates should be comprehensive. It’s more easy to delete information than add it in, so err on the side of including rather than too small.
Imagine you are creating a template of your own resume. You would want to list in-depth details so you’ll have all the information you need to submit an application for any job.
You can delete notes later on, but you may forget it when it’s not from the template.
Some tools will automatically fill in these variables for you (more on this in a little ). But if you have to fill in the data on your own, add some text that is obvious and simple to look for so it is possible to locate.