No matter how easy we make it to use Max, making patches takes time. You'll be happier if you can reuse some the of work you've done already, and Max has a number of ways to let you do this.
Creating abstractions from patchers is the most basic way to reuse your work.
Snippets are small pieces of patches you can save and re-use.
Templates are starting points for new patches.
You can create reusable object prototypes as variations on the default appearance and behavior of user interface objects.