Templating

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What is templating?“

“Templating is the practical use of templates. You’re familiar with the template in computer-use.“

“You mean the preset formats for documents and such?“

“Yes. That’s but one application of it.

In essence, the template as a model is a structure with two components: one fixed and one variable.“

“Can you give some examples?“

“Sure.

You can use templating to create an optimal structure for the day (day template). The fixed part of the template is the part of the day you have most control over: the beginning and end of the day. Someone called them the AM and PM Bookends. And you can go granular. You can have templates for the bookends themselves (AM/PM templates) and for your working hours as well (deep-work template).

You can use templating with movement (movement templates). You can have a fixed part of a few selected movements, and play with building on and around them.

To optimize any activity, you can turn it into a template.

You can also use templating with language (linguistic templates).

My favorite linguistic template has to do with questions (question templates).

For instance let’s take the question,

How can you optimize Optimization ?

We can transform it into a template by identifying the variable part:

How can you optimize z ? (Template)

‘z‘ here is a variable. You could replace it with… well, anything.

How can you optimize Learning ?
How can you optimize Conversation ?
How can you optimize Questioning ?
etc.

And we can further deconstruct the question:

How can you y ? (Template)

‘y’ here is another variable.

How can you beautify z ? (Template)
How can you play with z ? (Template)
How can you turn z into creative inspiration ? (Template)
etc.

The furthest deconstruction level is:

How x ? (Fundamental Template)

This is the most basic question template. I call it a question kernel.“

“I presume the other question kernels are:

Why x ?
What x ? 
Where x ?
When x ?”

“Indeed. These are the fundamental seeds from which the Art of Asking Questions (Questioning) grows.“

Advertisement