How to Judge Whether a Thing Is Worth Doing

I have two criteria to judge whether a thing is worth doing: short - term and long - term.

Short - term Criteria

In the short run, if a thing can bring value several times, or even a hundred times more than other things in a short period, it's a rare opportunity that you must seize.

Some short - term trending projects can offer a tenfold return for one unit of time invested. In this case, you might as well spare some time, increase your investment, and even work overnight. You may earn a year's income in just one month.

Long - term Criteria

In the long run, the key is to determine whether a thing is worth doing continuously.

My method is to consider it from a time dimension of 10 years or longer. If a thing will have no value in 10 years, there's no need to invest your energy in it now.

If a thing has low short - term returns and no long - term accumulation or value, just don't do it.

It's hard to judge short - term worthy things as they change rapidly and opportunities pass by in a flash. Long - term worthy things are relatively easier to judge and find, but the difficult part is to keep going.

Many people struggle to keep doing a long - term valuable thing. They tend to hesitate, waver, and even give up due to the lack of immediate feedback. For example, it's quite common for people to stop after a few months without seeing obvious results.

Skills for Short - term Projects

When doing short - term projects, you need to act quickly and make decisive decisions. Don't hesitate, or others will grab the opportunity.

At the same time, you need to have a sharp eye and not choose the wrong direction or project. More importantly, you should be brave enough to invest and not be over - cautious.

Skills for Long - term Projects

For long - term things, you need to have enough self - control to block out external distractions.

You have to restrain yourself, resist temptations, and suppress greed so that you can keep doing a thing for five, ten years, or even longer.

The Difference between Short - term and Long - term Projects

The skills required for short - term and long - term projects are completely different.

Some people may ask whether to choose short - term or long - term projects. I think you can do both. The key lies in the reasonable allocation of energy and time.

If you're good at seizing trends and making quick decisions, you can put 70% or 80% of your energy into short - term projects and the remaining 20% or 30% into long - term projects, such as maintaining good health, writing, investing, reading, personal growth, and building your personal IP.

But if you're not good at short - term operations and not suitable for projects that require quick reactions, you should spend more time on long - term accumulation. For example, put 80% of your energy into long - term projects and gain benefits through compound interest and accumulation.

Meanwhile, you should also spare 20% of your attention to pay attention to and try new projects and opportunities.

If you completely ignore short - term changes, new projects or technologies may suddenly emerge one day, completely disrupting your original business, and you won't even notice.

We should focus on perceiving market changes and stay flexible to avoid being too rigid in business, thinking, cognition, information, and actions. Try to stay active and respond to changes flexibly.

The Envy between Short - term and Long - term Doers

People doing short - term projects often envy those doing long - term projects, as the latter have relatively more stability and don't need to deal with frequent changes and rules, so they won't be so exhausted.

However, those doing long - term projects also envy short - term doers, who can sometimes make a lot of money suddenly. But short - term doers are easily affected by external information and temptations and become anxious.

Few people can be completely immune to external influences. Especially when they're not making money or facing business problems, they tend to look for other opportunities.

But sometimes, exploring new opportunities doesn't necessarily mean making money. Since you can't make money in your own field of expertise, it may be even harder in a new field you know nothing about, and you may even get scammed. This is a common contradictory phenomenon.

What Most People Should Do

For most people, there's no need to think too much. What you need to do is to make a lot of trial - and - error attempts and find something you can keep doing.

Most people's problem isn't the difficulty of choice but the problems of action and mentality. They may not be able to keep going because they're too tired or too busy. This is the real challenge for most people.

The so - called confusion problem often boils down to a temporary decline in income, poor business performance, or insufficient traffic.

When facing these problems, the key is to deal with them directly, rather than taking shortcuts or avoiding reality. We should face and solve these practical problems instead of pinning our hopes on unrealistic ways.

Daily Reading & Writing by Xiaolu 2025.07.04 [Day 669]