There is always a quick and dirty way to do things.
I was typing up a school research paper in OpenOffice in probably 8th or 9th grade on the family desktop when my Dad saw me manually adding page numbers to the bottom of each page. He came over and said “You know, there is a better way to do that.” He proceeded to show me how to set up a footer in my document and insert page numbers that would automatically display the correct page number.
I was more annoyed than appreciative for the tip as it seemed to me that his way took longer than my manual way of adding page numbers to 3-4 pages. I just wanted to get the paper done. I didn’t care whether my document was easy to edit, reuse, or whether I learned something new about the software.
Thankfully, I have learned something since then. I have learned to appreciate things that make my life easier in the long-term even if they are more work in the short-term to set up.
There are plenty of these short-term versus long-term choices in creating clothing. There is always the quick and dirty “easy” way. (Rushing a sample with an unfinished pattern, approving a print without seeing a swatch first, and skipping getting a tech pack fall into this short-term easy category.) This way might get to some result faster now, but you’ll have chaos to deal with later. Eventually, the chaos catches up to you and, in order to scale, you’ll have to go back and build the long-term foundation from scratch.
Then there is the long-term way that I now know is truly easier. This way requires more intention, more time, and maybe more learning in the present, but it gives you more control and value down the road. Your future self will thank you.
(And thanks to my Dad who always showed me how to do things the long-term better way even if, as a kid, I didn’t want to listen.)