Carefully look at the leves. Some are much faster than others. Armorer offrs some extreme examples: one mythril ingot reqiures two mythril ore, and one item to craft, and the quest giver is very close by. Meanwhile other items take 6 or 8 times the materials, and as many more steps.

The triple turn ins are great for easy cheap items but can completely bog you done on the items that take more than a couple steps to craft.