At some point in your career, you might have heard: “you need to work smarter, not harder”.
Do you find that comment a little annoying? Particularly, when there’s no suggestions given.
If you knew how, wouldn’t you be doing it already?
Maybe it’s just focusing on what’s necessary and trying to ignore the minutiae that’s irrelevant to your end goal.
Possibly, it’s the hard work you put in 1st that eventually allows you to be smarter to not repeat the same mistakes again.
Often, I think general statements like this provide little value to the recipient.