One of the things I've noticed doing is that, whenever I'm eventing (because that's most of all I do..), I put effort into it based on how good the build around me is. I suck at creative, nice looking building so most of the time I don't get very far.
I have fun making well-evented RPGs, and I found a file while looking through some old folders that I remember quite well. I made this file while working on an NPC for Hectic's RPG. Remember, this is fairly old. I worked in a few stages, design, core structure, and then I would start layering in the fancy design.
I started with a Microsoft Excel document, the old file above, to design how this NPC would function. Below is the file.

The video
Here shows where I was transitioning between the core and fancy stages of the above format before deciding to scrap all of it to design it a little nicer to make the overall product much nicer.
So my question for everyone is, how much effort do you use, and what factors effect how much, and how effective, the effort is used.