Effort leaves receipts. So does laziness. Eventually someone asks to see them.

Work leaves a trail whether or not anybody is tracking it at the time. The notes, the drafts, the messages sent early, the shifts you covered, all of that sits somewhere. So does the other trail. Neither gets examined every day, but a moment comes, usually a decision about who gets picked for something, when somebody goes looking for evidence of how you operate.

Assume the record is being kept and make it accurate on purpose. Keep your own list of what you actually did, so you never have to argue from memory.