Attention is where effort becomes precise.

Effort applied to a scattered attention is blunt; the same effort applied to something you are actually holding in focus becomes precise. Precision is what makes work effective, and it comes from the quality of attention rather than the quantity of exertion. Trying harder without attending better mostly produces mess.

Before starting something, take a moment to actually orient: what exactly is the problem, what are you doing right now. That small act of focusing usually saves more time than it costs.