Templating.
Working with a large team, multiple departments and international deliverables we had to streamline the process and put strong systems in place.
Templating Pro Tools sessions, emails, archives became my day-to-day habit, and it helped me to deliver the best results.

But, what do I mean by template?

What are templates?

For me, these are rules by which people do their work. Guidelines and systems that make the everyday tasks easy to follow and consistent.
Because in any work you will ever do, consistency is the key. One lucky break will not make the whole business work, but everyday persistence will make sure that there will be a lot of ‘lucky brakes’.

Templates help to minimise the work that is not creative and focus on what is important.
Templates can be a start, they can and should be adjusted and upgraded with time.

The pros of templating are:
speed – by having a guide and workable systems in place you can be sure that the output will be much faster, you and your team will be able to do more and focus on the core of the business

easy to learn – when templates are done right, they are easy to explain for new teammates, you know the system will always work the same way, and the instructions will keep everyone on the same page

quality and standards – it is safe to say that when using templates all of your work will be done to the same standards; when you design a well-working system you can relax knowing that the results will always be the same.

Every solution has bad sides; I’m not claiming that templating is the answer to everything.

The cons of templating are:

can stifle creativity – working just to templates will have you thinking in one way, you can’t be too creative when doing work otherwise you can mess up the system

errors – an error in a template means that everyone who works on it will be infected, even if it’s a small thing it is a pain to go back and correct already submitted work

slows down innovation – designing a workable template takes time and once you spent the necessary work-hours you don’t want to abandon the system just because there is something new on the horizon; sometimes it means that you can miss out on new and better solutions

Overall I’m a big fan of templates. I think using a system, even in what some say creative work can vastly improve the results and output.
You can start implementing templates in all areas of your life; at home, you may not call it templates, but habits.
Morning and evening habits that you stick to will help you to start and end the day on a good note. Exercising habits will keep your health in check; scheduling eating times will make your days work for you.                                                                                                                                                                  
It’s not about designing robotic life but rather systemising parts of it that you don’t have to think. It allows you to focus on work that you enjoy doing.

At work using templates is a no-brainer. It can be as simple as emails or as complicated as Pro Tools sessions; it depends on your task.
Think about every aspect of your day; what parts of it could be replaced by artificial intelligence or a robot?
What parts are repetitive and boring?

Then start thinking how you can systemise them and what solutions are out there. I promise that if you know where and how to look, you can find a system for almost anything that you do.