Stop trying to smart yourself into success. Sure, get an idea about where you want to start. Brainstorm for 10 minutes, outline your thoughts, look at the mess, but then find a place to begin. Focus on the one thing you can DO something about. Now stop thinking and get to work.
In school, I was taught to memorize what teachers thought was important.
Memorization never made a difference except on a multiple choice test.
Facts and Data can be stored in a computer, yet have no value.
Analyzing Data is futile until there is a reason for it, a problem to solve.
Important or not, there was something lost when I didn’t discover it myself.
Solving the problem takes new thinking, and that comes from work. Apply the data. Make a move. Sweat a little and your mind starts to open to discover more aspects, problems that were hidden, muscles that were unused, relationships ignored. Yes, work smarter but that does not happen without hard work. It’s the hard work that brings out the need to work faster, better, cheaper. Work the problem and people will credit you for the great thinker you are. Do it and it becomes part of you.