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I wrote a sentence,
"It was not always effective but painstaking and sometimes seemed like waste of time."
and I wonder whether the words "not effective" and "painstaking" could be connected with the conjunction "but".
I'm confused because it seems quite natural for me at the first glance, but I learned that "not effective" and "painstaking" both also carry some negative meaning.
Does this sentence sound unnatural? Or maybe I should use other conjunction like, for instance, "and"?
When you contrast two things using but, you generally want to give the impression that one of the concepts is stronger or more important. To do this, you put the emphasized concept after the but.
It was hard work, but it was worth the effort.
In your sentence, you follow on with sometimes it seems like a waste of time, so you want to emphasize not always effective. It would therefore be better to write:
It was painstaking but not always effective, and sometimes seemed like waste of time
Not effective is definitely negative: painstaking can be both negative and positive. Used with a but you are emphasizing the positive side. You could emphasize the negative side by using and rather than but.
It was painstaking and not always effective, and sometimes seemed like waste of time
