Creating a template out of anything with AI
Generating templates through AI allows us to quickly create repeatable structures that raise the floor of our daily capacity, expertise and long-term confidence.
When I first started using AI tools, I thought they’d solve my “blank canvas” frustrations. And they did—save me from the blinking cursor and the vague avoidance anyways. In some ways, that did actually help. But that also meant a lot of cases of getting back the digital equivalent of a microwaved Thanksgiving dinner: nuked, hot, and too much for one sitting.
Because what I actually created was a faster way to generate mediocre content. I realized what I needed was a way to make my own style faster to apply. I needed my voice to scale without turning into a parody of myself.
Key Takeaways
The use of templates go far beyond time-savings by helping us to inherit expertise, build confidence and avoid momentum loss in our day-to-day
Great templates can be built from three sources (past work, a set of rules, or nothing)
The trick? Don’t wait until you’re overwhelmed to create a template (that’s where AI comes in)
Templates are scaffolding. They don’t replace your creative process, they support it. I might even go so far as to say this is the grunt work AI was built for (it sure beats blackmail).
So in this post, let’s talk about:
What we get from templates (besides time-savings)
Why you’re probably under-using templates
Three prompts to help us quickly create new templates
What we get from templates (besides time-savings)
Templates reduce cognitive load, accelerate learning and offer built-in best practices—especially useful in unfamiliar territory. We talk a lot about how templates save time. But that’s just the surface-level benefit.
What’s more interesting, and often unconsidered, is how templates change us.
How templates help us (on a macro scale)
Over time, they build confidence. Each time you use one successfully, you reinforce your ability to complete a task. That momentum extends beyond. It’s cumulative. Quiet. Solid.
Templates reduce the weight of starting from scratch. Psychologists would call them a form of cognitive scaffolding—a mental structure that makes it easier to organize and act. They satisfy a part of us that craves patterns and predictability amidst the mess.
Templates help you start before you feel ready. Ever stared at a blank page and immediately thought about doing the dishes? That’s choice overload—too many options freeze us. Templates nudge you past the inertia by giving us a defined starting point.
A good template isn’t about saving time once. It’s about avoiding momentum loss.
Templates teach as they go. The learning is baked in, as a great template helps you learn the structure of expert work. Simply following them lets us internalize patterns—logical flow, persuasive structure, solid formatting.
On a deeper psychological level
Perhaps the deeper value lies in how they meet our emotional and psychological needs.
They create safety through structure. When you know what sections to fill out or what steps to follow, your anxiety goes down and your confidence goes up. Which means templates can give you a base level of competence—even in areas where you feel underqualified.
They protect the brain from burnout. Our brains are decision-making machines. But they have limits. A well-crafted template reduces decision fatigue by removing an entire question set from our purview.
They offer legitimacy when you need it most. Templates are meant to reflect best practices. So when you use one, you're standing on the shoulders of process (or successful people). That’s built-in social proof.
And they unlock creativity (not kill it). This one might surprise you: templates reduce perfectionism. Instead of spinning forever, you’re given a boundary. And boundaries unlock our most creative ideas.
You’re probably UNDER using templates
Most people think of templates only when they’re tackling big, obvious projects: a pitch deck, a business plan, maybe a resume. But the real magic happens in the small, repetitive friction points—the places that quietly drain away our energy.
Start there.
Where are you constantly rewriting the same thing?
Where does your momentum die its most slow and suffocating death?
What makes you open a doc and immediately abandon course?
If you’re hitting keyboard fatigue, that’s a signal. If formatting issues keep derailing progress, that’s a signal. These are the moments that template well. Not because they’re high stakes, but because they’re high frequency.
Start collecting them.
Great template moments often hide in plain sight
You don’t need to build a giant Notion library to feel the benefits. Instead, look for the little things—here are a few surprisingly powerful places to start templating:
First lines: The first sentence of an email, blog post, or LinkedIn reply
Thank-you notes: For podcast guests, collaborators, clients
Slide outlines: For recurring talks or internal presentations
Weekly summaries: For team updates or personal progress logs
Content wrappers: The way you introduce or summarize your work
Decision frameworks: A doc format to help you think through big choices
Intro questions: For meetings, interviews, or panels you lead
Self-introductions: For pitching yourself to contacts, colleagues, and even friends
One thing to notice about these: they all smooth the path. The smoother the path, the less time getting started and the more time progressing or shipping. A good template isn’t about saving time once. It’s more about avoiding momentum loss.
Three ways to quickly develop templates with AI
Let’s make this practical. Here are three ways to build templates that save time and raise the floor for your day-to-day work.
Method 1: Use past work
If you’ve got a Google Doc graveyard of solid drafts or emails you’re proud of, great. Here’s a prompt to extract a reusable template from a past piece of content:
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