I found it interesting, cleaning all the mess in settlement like cars, trees, even the whole houses in some cases, which will get you large quantities of neccessary materials (steel, wood, rubber...). You can pick apart every piece of junk as well, e.g. phones have circuitry and then circuitry is one of materials required to build turrents as part of yours town's defenses. You need to provide water by building pumps, food by planting seeds found all across wasteland, enough beds, defenses, power, etc...