Working smart without working hard is just having good ideas in bed.

Finding a clever approach is genuinely valuable and it is only half a move. Strategy without execution stays a thought, and thoughts feel productive because planning uses the same part of you that solving does. The satisfaction is nearly identical, which is how somebody can spend two weeks refining an approach to a thing they never actually began.

Test whether the clever plan survives one hour of real work. If it does, keep it. If you catch yourself refining the plan again instead of doing the thing, that is your answer, and the next step is to start badly.