Yes, templates are wrong, well, not as much as they used to be. But here’s the thing, they are great for removing the excuse to start something. Great for taking away the procrastination of “I need to build my own thing to make it happen.”

A classic example is building a Web site when you are a developer. Since this is something we can do, we always believe that we should also develop our site from scratch.

NO!!

That is a sure-fire way to make sure that site probably never goes live. Why? Because we are our own worst clients. We will rebuild it, redesign it, and rethink it repeatedly without ever completing the ship version.

Even worse, because of this, we will focus so much on making it that we will forget why we wanted to do it in the first place and never fill it with content.

Another example.

In creative photography, we will sometimes go to crazy lengths to perfect the look of an image that a preset can do for us.

WHY?

Well, because either we believe or peer pressure tells us that only beginners use presets, and that is just not true. A preset does not work the composition or examine the content of the frame; the photographer does.

It’s about focusing on the right objectives. Is the goal to create content or create the infrastructure?

So use a template or preset to get started

That way, you can kick start the content and then, if need be, go back and revisit it later to make the changes to the idea you want.

So if you want to start something and have told yourself you do not have the time to build it, pick something that gets you started. I guarantee that if you do it this way, you will stay more engaged with it than never shipping the product you will never finish.