Minecraft wiki entry for Time-saving_tips, associated text: By placing the planks in the middle of the grid in step 2, they are already in the right place to generate sticks and form the center part of the gate in step 4, which saves you from having to move them. Not many crafting recipes behave in this way, but whenever you make a lot of an item, if you are able to place the ingredients in just the right way you can save a little bit of time every time you craft it.