Thinking critically about your work
I often think about "thinking about work". Meta working, or the work within the work. Doing it all day is counter-productive - none of your actual work will get done. But I think it's crucial to take a step back and think through the reasons you're doing the things you do all day, look for better ways, and not be just a participant in your job but a planner. Don't just be the construction crew, be the architect. Don't just execute, design. If you never take a step back and think critically about what you're doing with your time, you might find out that you were on a hamster wheel and just wasted 6 months or a year of your life. Here's an extreme example of what it looks like to never question your work. The scanners I was working at a previous job in another role, and sitting across from me I watched some interns scanning medical records day in and day out. The company had purchased a clinical trial and along with it came 1 million pages of paper in 45...