Lesson 2 of 5 · Beginner
Make one repeating task reusable
About 25–35 minutes, including the practice
You will need. The Job Brief from Lesson 1, or a fresh one. A notes app or a paper page you can find again next week. No account on this site.
What you will be able to do
- Tell a one-time brief from a reusable template
- Mark which lines stay every week and which lines must change
- Save one template you can fill in about ten minutes
- Catch a template that is about to repeat last week’s facts
Lesson 1 asked you to write a complete brief once. Most useful work is not once. It is the Friday post, the “your order is ready” note, the reminder that the hours changed, the same kind of reply. If you rebuild five headings from memory every time, you will eventually skip the constraint that mattered. A template keeps the parts you always forget and leaves blanks for the parts that have to be true this week.
A finished brief is today’s job, filled in. A template is that same job with the repeating rules kept and the changing facts left open. The template is not a magic prompt. It is a form you are willing to fill with facts you checked.
Stays
- Who you are and who it is for
- Tone and standing rules
- The shape of the answer
Changes this week
- Today’s true facts
- A date you checked
- What is actually here
What stays, and what has to change
Read a brief you would actually send again and sort every sentence into one of two piles.
Sort the brief
Stays
- Who you are
- Who it is for
- The tone you want
- The things you never invent
- The shape of the answer
Changes this week
- This week’s true facts
- Dates you have checked
- What is actually in stock, on the menu, or on the calendar
- The one condition that is true today and may be false next week
If a line could embarrass you next Thursday because the world moved, it does not belong in the locked part. Prices, hours, stock, names, and “this weekend only” are changing facts even when they feel stable.
Hypothetical: Elena’s Friday window
Elena runs a small neighborhood flower shop. Every Thursday she writes a short note about what people can actually come see on Friday. She does not want a tool to invent flowers she does not have, prices, wedding dates, or a claim that the shop is the best in the city.
One finished week, the true facts were: ranunculus and eucalyptus are in the window; the tulips are the last of this bunch; she is not publishing a price; she is not taking wedding bookings in this note.
Hypothetical · A filled week, not a template yet
- Context
- I am Elena. I write to neighbors who already stop by Flores Naranjo for everyday flowers.
- Goal
- Tell them what is really in the window on Friday so they can decide to come.
- Constraints
- Use only these flowers: ranunculus and eucalyptus. It is true that the tulips are the last of this bunch. Do not invent a price, a wedding date, a rarity, a customer quote, or “best in the city.”
- Style
- Like a note taped on the glass. Plain, warm, no hashtag pile.
- Output
- One caption of 4 to 6 sentences, plus a one-sentence window card.
That brief is good for that Thursday. It is a bad template if she saves it whole. Next week the ranunculus may be gone, and the tool will keep writing them because they are sitting in the locked text.
Turn the filled brief into blanks
A useful blank asks for a fact you can check by looking. A weak blank asks for a vibe. “Write something nice about flowers” recreates the wish from Lesson 1. “List only the flowers in the shop today” is a blank.
Hypothetical · Elena’s reusable template
- Context (stays)
- I am Elena. I write to neighbors who already stop by Flores Naranjo for everyday flowers.
- Goal (stays)
- Tell them what is really in the window on Friday so they can decide to come.
- This week’s facts (changes)
- [List only the flowers you can see today.] [One true condition, such as “the tulips are the last of the bunch,” or write “no extra condition.”]
- Constraints (stay)
- Do not name a flower that is not on my list. Do not invent a price, a wedding date, a rarity, a customer quote, or “best in the city.” 4 to 6 sentences. If a detail is missing, write [NEED A FACT] instead of guessing.
- Style (stays)
- Like a note taped on the glass. Plain, warm, no hashtag pile.
- Output (stays)
- One caption I can copy, plus a one-sentence window card.
Where to keep it
Save the template in a notes app or a document you already use. This website does not store your briefs. Title it with the job, not with the name of a tool: “Friday window note.” Under the blanks, keep one filled example from a real week so future-you can see how specific the facts should be. Date the example. When you fill a new week, do not paste the old flowers into the blank to save time.
Hypothetical, week two
A fill that does not drag last week forward
Friday’s window has dahlias and rosemary. That is the whole list. No price in the note. The dahlias are the sturdy ones, not a rare variety I am willing to claim. Come see them if you are nearby.
Ways a template goes stale
- The blank is too wide. It says “describe the shop” instead of “name what is here today.”
- Last week’s fact froze. The tulips are still in the locked paragraph, so every Friday claims tulips.
- The constraint fell off. The template still asks for a caption, but it no longer says “do not invent a price.”
- You own twelve templates and open none of them. Lesson 4 will ask for three, not a drawer full.
Recap
Keep the rules that protect you. Leave blanks for the facts that move. Name the blanks so they ask for something you can check. Save the page where you will find it, off this website. Then fill one real week before you trust the template.
Hands-on task
15 minutes
Choose Option A or Option B. You are making a template, not collecting a new prompt.
Option A (preferred)
Use a repeating task from your own week: a caption, a ready-for-pickup note, a reminder about hours, or a short reply you send often. Use only facts you know are true. Do not paste a customer’s name or contact details into any tool. If the task is about a person, describe the situation and add their name yourself, later, outside the chat. Lesson 5 goes further. Start the habit now.
Option B
Use Elena and Flores Naranjo. Stay inside the shop as written. Do not add prices, weddings, or awards.
Do this
- Write one filled brief for a single week, with all five parts from Lesson 1.
- Mark each line “stays” or “changes.”
- Rewrite it as a template with at least three explicit blanks. Each blank should ask for a fact, not a vibe.
- Fill the template for one week that is not a copy of the example already printed in the lesson. If you use Option B, use a flower list other than ranunculus and eucalyptus.
- Run Lesson 1’s one-minute check on the filled week. Score the template with the rubric below. A passing score is 8 out of 10. If you miss, fix the template, not only the paragraph.
This exercise is practice. It does not enroll you, certify you, or promise that the template will bring customers.
Answer rubric
Score the template and the one filled week together. Be stricter about frozen facts than about elegant wording.
9–10: Save this template. Put one filled example under it and date that example.
8: Pass. Fix the line that lost a point before you rely on it next week.
5–7: The template is still partly a wish, or last week is frozen inside it. Rewrite the blanks and try once more.
Below 5: Start again from stays and changes. Write short labels for the blanks. Do not decorate.
If you used Option B, a passing template must not lock ranunculus, eucalyptus, or tulips into the part that stays. Those were one week’s facts.
Marks on this device
Saved only in this browser, on this device. Not an account. Not a certificate. Clearing your browser data removes them.
Nothing marked on this device yet.