50 50 Raffle Flyer Template fundraising from prize drawing template , image source: www.pinterest.com
Each week brings task lists, emails, files, and new projects. Just how much of that is different from the job you have done? Odds are, not much. Many of our day-to-day tasks are variations on something.
Don’t reinvent the wheel each time you start something fresh. Use templates–standardized documents with formatting and text as starting point for work. Once you save a variant of the template add, remove, or alter any data for that unique document, and you’ll have the new job completed in a fraction of this time.
Programs work everywhere: in word processors, spreadsheets, project management apps, survey platforms, and email. Here’s how to use templates and to create documents from a template–so you can get your tasks faster.
Programs take the time to build, and it’s easy to wonder if they are worth the investment. The brief answer: absolutely. Editing a template takes much less time than formatting something. It’s the difference between retyping it, or copying and pasting some text.
That is only one benefit: Using a template means you’re not as likely to leave out crucial information, also. For example, if you want to send freelance writers a contributor agreement, modifying a standard contract template (rather than writing a new contract each time) ensures you won’t leave out that crucial clause about owning the content as soon as you’ve paid for it.
Templates additionally guarantee consistency. You send regular job updates to customers or investors. Using a template, you know the update will have the exact same formatting, design, and standard arrangement.
How to Create Great Templates
Not many templates are created equal–and some things do not require a template. Here are a few guidelines to follow.
First, templates must be comprehensive. It’s simpler to delete info than add it in, so err on the side of adding rather than too small.
Imagine you are creating a template of your resume. You would want to list in-depth facts about your responsibilities and achievements, and that means you are going to have all the information you need to submit an application for almost any job.
You can always delete less-important notes later on, but you might forget it at the last 25, when it is not in the template.
Some tools will automatically fill in all these factors for you (more on this in a bit). But should you need to fill in the data by yourself, include some text that is simple and obvious to look for so you can locate.