Design near-complete templates for recurring outputs…
For recurring operational outputs (status reports, bug reports, meeting minutes), design templates with nearly complete structure including section headings, formatting, and boilerplate text, requiring only variable content insertion.
When This Fires
- When creating any output type for the second time — that's when the template should be extracted
- When recurring outputs take longer than they should because of repeated structural work
- When output quality varies across instances because the structure is recreated each time
- Complements Extract templates from your 3 best past examples… (extract templates from best examples) with the design specification for template completeness
Common Failure Mode
Skeleton templates: templates with section headings but no formatting, no boilerplate, and no prompts. "Status Report Template: [Title]. Progress. Blockers. Next Steps." This saves 2 minutes of heading creation but doesn't address the 15 minutes of formatting, boilerplate writing, and structural decisions that the producer still faces each time.
The Protocol
(1) After producing a recurring output for the third time, extract a template. (2) Include everything that was identical across all three instances: section headings, formatting, boilerplate text, standard recipients, standard intro/outro paragraphs. (3) Mark variable sections with clear prompts: "[Insert this week's top 3 accomplishments]" "[Insert current blockers with expected resolution dates]" "[Insert next week's priorities]." (4) Test: can someone produce the next instance by only typing into the bracketed prompts? If they need to make any structural decisions, the template needs more pre-filling. (5) Version the template: when the output format evolves (new section added, old section dropped), update the template immediately rather than letting instances diverge from the template.