Work smarter, not harder. I’ve been focused on this saying for the past couple of months, looking for places where I could reduce the amount of time that I spend on repetitive tasks. In that time, I’ve found that I spend a lot of time at the keyboard, pounding out what are virtually identical documents. Occasionally, I’ve been known to take an old email or document and use the basic format, but actually creating templates seemed like too much of an investment of time.
Beyond Saving Time
I started making a point of saving documents that I knew I’d be able to reuse — especially email messages — as templates, though, and I noticed something. Not only did I speed up many of the regular tasks I have to complete (such as introducing a client to the way I do business), but I actually got to spend more time on the parts of my work that I enjoy. When some of the hum-drum boring parts of writing are out of the way from the moment I start, I can focus more time on putting together the more creative aspects of everything that I’m working on.
I may not be able to put together an in-depth template for everything I do, but you may be surprised at how helpful even an outline of how a standard type of email might be. For instance, I’ve now got a template for an email explaining the estimates I put together for my clients. Every estimate is different, depending on what kind of help a client needs, but I’ve got a general structure on how to break down the details and even a reminder to actually attach the estimate to my email. That will save you some trouble more often than you might think.
Having that guidance helps me get more creative on the parts of a page where I can, without running the risk of forgetting something boring, yet crucial.
Creating Your Own Templates
For most of us, creating templates seems like a major time commitment. You’ve got to sit down and make a list of everything that you need a template for, and then you have to write out the actual template. But that view isn’t really accurate. Creating templates can be a much easier process to manage, although you’ll need a reminder to actually create the template somewhere along the way. When you’re in the middle of writing a document that you know you’ll need to recreate down the road, write it up and then save a second copy — without the information that makes this particular document specific to the situation. You’ve got a template without going out of your way. The only hard part is remembering that you want to save that second copy.
It also makes sense to revisit certain templates after you’ve written them. For instance, a reminder written to a client late on their payments can be a useful template to have, but whatever you write in the heat of the moment is probably going to need some tweaking when you’re not aggravated by a particular client.
Image by Flickr user Owlpacino
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