For me, it was quite important that the project was not just “important” in the sense that it was relevant to the global good, but “important” in the sense that it was meeting all of my own needs. ie:
I felt like other people in my social circle cared about it
The end product was something that tied in with my overall self-narrative/image
Many intermediate stages were very creatively stimulating
The difficulty of the tasks were roughly at my current skill level
There was clearly nobody else who would do the thing if I didn’t do it (this is unfortunately in tension with “doing it sustainably”. It’s possible people need to be forced to learn this skill in somewhat stressful burnout-inducing environments and then later can apply it in healthier environments)
A lot of things had to go right at once, which were pretty situation-dependent (and me-dependent)
For me, it was quite important that the project was not just “important” in the sense that it was relevant to the global good, but “important” in the sense that it was meeting all of my own needs. ie:
I felt like other people in my social circle cared about it
The end product was something that tied in with my overall self-narrative/image
Many intermediate stages were very creatively stimulating
The difficulty of the tasks were roughly at my current skill level
There was clearly nobody else who would do the thing if I didn’t do it (this is unfortunately in tension with “doing it sustainably”. It’s possible people need to be forced to learn this skill in somewhat stressful burnout-inducing environments and then later can apply it in healthier environments)
A lot of things had to go right at once, which were pretty situation-dependent (and me-dependent)