What should you actually turn into a text Snippet? Here are some ideas

[josh.centers]

A question that comes up a lot is deciding what’s actually worth saving as a reusable text snippet. We covered this in a recent webinar, and I wanted to share the core framework and some specific examples that might help you identify opportunities in your own workflow.

The main rule of thumb we teach is simple: If you type it or copy/paste it more than once, it deserves to be a Snippet.

To get you started, here are some prime examples of things you can turn into Snippets today:

• General office work:
  • Commonly used phrases or sentences from emails.
  • Full paragraphs or entire messages you frequently send (e.g., project kick-off emails).
  • Templates for meeting notes or client session summaries.
• Customer support:
  • Standard replies to common customer questions (FAQs).
  • Welcome emails for new users.
  • Shipping or appointment confirmations.
• Healthcare Professionals:
  • Commonly used medical abbreviations and drug classes.
  • Care plan templates and patient instructions.
  • Documentation and charting templates.

This simple practice saves a surprising amount of time and mental energy every single day. If you want to hear it explained, the tip is from this clip of our webinar, “Mastering the Art of Snippet Creation”:

[GeneHoffman]

Reasonably often, when I’m editing a document or email, a snippet would help. But I think that I’ll never use the snippet again. So, I don’t create it. This is silly. TE certainly won’t care if I never use the snippet again. But it still bugs me.

Recently, I’ve found that in this case, I’ll go ahead and create the snippet, but give it a temporary abbreviation, like xxxx. Then next time I could use a snippet, but don’t think I’ll ever use it again, I update the text of the temporary snippet I created before. This way I get the benefit of using the snippet while I’m editing, but don’t have to worry about wasting a snippet. And I know that xxxx is the abbreviation.