I over-analyze everything and if I actually explained all the reasons the screwdriver should be put away, you would be bored, possibly to death. If you persist in arguing you might hear half of it.
And yet my toolbox is still full of things I do because someone I respect did them, or someone I disrespect didn’t, and the outcomes were dramatic. I know the expected outcomes, I have half an idea how they actually work, I just know it’s a magic spell that gets me into or out of problems. We don’t know why asking dad for ice cream works more often than mom, but empirically it does.
There are areas dictated by human factors like errors, or overconfidence. There are areas I will sweat blood to do a mindful task to avoid a mindless one, and vice versa. And there are things I do because it improves outcomes with neurodivergent people, and sometimes neurotypical ones.
There’s a concept in chronic illness circles called spoons. It is a metaphor that acknowledges that it’s not time that’s the constrained resource, it’s energy. A wake up call that software desperately needs. When you have used all your physical or emotional energy you are “out of spoons” for the day. You can’t do anything but veg.
This is slowly being replaced in psychology circles with metaphors that are more like deck building card games, because they speak also to many other groups of non-extroverts. If you aren’t prepared for a task like calling tech support or dealing with a toxic relative, being forced to do it now burns all the other tasks you might have done cheaply today. These people want to know they have a dentist appointment or a date in two days because they need to psych themselves up. Spend energy today and tomorrow making sure they have that card available. And if there’s a cancellation, they are out all that energy and have to spend it again.
There’s a lot of this in our work too. The old joke aphorism about, “why spend a day doing something you can spend a week automating?” falls under this umbrella.