01
My friend Xiaoyu met me on the street corner and excitedly pulled me to talk for a long time: An old comrade from her work unit retired a few days ago, and she spent three days using it. Mei Pian made a dynamic retirement album for him and planned to print it into a book and give it to him as a mysterious gift.
I was shocked and asked her: Is it worth spending three days to write a beautiful article? I know that my friend has many interests and hobbies, and there are too many things that require her time.
Without any hesitation, she said it was worth it:
1. It left wonderful, unforgettable and easy-to-spread memories for retired colleagues. Colleagues at the symposium were filled with emotion, and they forwarded the link to their WeChat Moments that evening, and there were many comments.
2. Many colleagues gained a sense of participation. In the early stage, the work was divided and each was responsible for collecting photos and participating in the captions. During the symposium, I often smiled knowingly when I saw the photos I captioned. In this process, everyone also realized that today I am busy for others, and tomorrow others will be busy for me. Kindness is a legacy.
3. It saves production costs for the unit and shows a good spiritual outlook in the dissemination: unity and progress, respect for intellectuals, and respect for old comrades.
4. I have mastered the skills of making beautiful articles and learned new ways to play.
It seems like a small move, but in the end it brings so much sense of accomplishment. What my friend did is a typical event with low return value and long half-life.
02
Caitong said in the book "Jianjin": The benefit value is the benefit that something will bring to us at the moment. This benefit can be mental, emotional It can also be physical or material. The half-life of a benefit refers to the rate at which the benefit decays over time. Events with a long half-life will have a longer-lasting impact.
What are these two indicators used for?
To judge whether something is worth your time to do, simply put, it can be to spend time on things that you think are meaningful and worth doing.
To be more scientific, based on the above two indicators, we can simply form four events, which can be expressed in quadrants as:
High return value, long half-life events: find true love; learn An effective way of thinking; completing an impressive trip; having a meaningful conversation with others; maintaining and promoting health.
High return value, short half-life events: buy a fashionable piece of clothing; play mobile games for an afternoon; eat a big meal.
Events with low return value and long half-life: practice calligraphy for an hour; memorize 10 words; practice playing a piece of music; reply to friends’ emails carefully.
Events with low return value and short half-life: participating in an online fight, aimlessly browsing Weibo to check Moments, or chasing a boring TV series.
What is worth spending time on?
Do more long-half-life events, such as:
Accumulate professional knowledge required for work;
Deliberately train practical skills;
Reflection and summarize personal experiences;
Stay healthy;
Find and obtain scarce resources.
Of course, doing less does not mean doing nothing. After all, we still need some immediate happiness and impromptu satisfaction, but it should not be the focus of our lives and not worth spending too much time on.
03
Taking myself as an example, I accidentally participated in Mr. Fan’s writing camp and was required to submit homework, so I became acquainted with him. Initially, I just hoped that my articles would be clearer and more logical, and I would strive to achieve "four words" in my articles, that is, to say something meaningful, to say something in an orderly manner, to say something reasonable, and to say something interesting.
In the process of non-stop writing, I also had a lot of confusion and anxiety:
Unable to update daily: lack of writing skills, insufficient materials, and time cannot be guaranteed. It is still difficult to reduce the number of updates from daily to 2 per week.
Lack of positioning: Talking about writing, parenting, personal growth, essays and even photography has been on the home page, but I still feel confused after trying in all directions;
Excellent companions: If you don’t work hard, you will be Throw it far. Ye Laowu, my writing partner, was the first to reveal his personal goals, and his positioning was precise, and his fans repeatedly reached new highs, exceeding 20,000.
Like him, others who slowly found their way and established their position include Shenzhen Qiya’s psychology and education-related articles, which were pushed to the homepage many times. She also persisted in making reflections and summaries every day, and insisted on listening to new concept English. She suddenly made a breakthrough and A cat who actively shares what he has gained and is accomplished in calligraphy and many other areas.
Some things cannot be rushed, especially when writing a systems engineering project. From the moment I felt confused, I slowed down and reread everyone's classics and bestsellers. We strive to strengthen input, conduct data analysis, and also analyze data from other platforms: What type of contracted authors are you? What do popular articles focus on? Can public accounts still enter the venue now? How should I position myself and which direction should I focus on? Can content be monetized?
Is it worth your time? Obviously, using the four-quadrant method to judge writing is an event with low return value and long half-life.
Long half-life events are worth trying and worth your time.
If you have a clear mind, a fixed goal, and a clear path, if you think it is worthwhile, spend time on research and practice, and keep writing and writing. By the end of writing, you may be able to transform from the low return value in long half-life events. High revenue value - realizing content monetization: with royalties, fans can start classes and form communities.
At that point, all the time spent will be worth it.
Whether it’s writing, reading, calligraphy, photography or fitness, this is the best. The time you spend on it today will appear in front of you tomorrow as another kind of time fruit!
04
So, spending time doing things you think is worth doing, in the final analysis is:
First, identify what is worth doing.
Second, choose to do the right thing.
Third, take the time to do it continuously and do it.