Don’t optimize for things that don’t matter. Intermediate milestones/goals may be too limiting (but can also be rewarding). Cutting straight to the bottom line may streamline all those other actions for what really matters. You still need to figure out what really matters though.
This process may squeeze out all creativity for the intermediate things, but allow for creativity to grow for the desired vision.
Reading
Does it matter to read as an author intended? Or is it better to breeze through it and capture the core ideas and only then, if it sparks some foundational principle, perhaps, read more times, slowly. Otherwise, there are so many other things you can do that might be better. Start at one page per minute and then increase from there?
This kind of strategy allows for deeper dives into various subjects. You no longer need to figure out what book is the best on something; read a bunch, and decide for yourself (from primary sources no less)!
Career/technology/tools
Optimizing for great tools may not be ideal if it is not progressing your end goal of delighting people with some product. These may, unfortunately, be the sacrifices you must make for what you think is principally important.
Best practices and tools may help do things more efficiently later on, but they come with costs: initial ramp-up time for creating and/or learning those tools, figuring out if an idea is even viable. That valuable time can be spent Pretotyping.
Things that stick can be optimized by those that care or are better at it. You need to think about what matters to you; what do you what to improve on.
Little, insignificant things are like tiny cuts that can lead to death by a thousand cuts (or at least not acheiving what you want).
Life
A person’s life is an infinite game; a game so long, you likely don’t stop playing until you’re dead. For a game this long and variable, you can’t really maximize anything; there are too many surprises ahead. What you may be able to do is have a lot of fun exploring different areas.
Leave a good legacy and minimize regret. With this vision in mind, you can work wherever, as long as you’re exploring new creative skills and sharing the fun with others.
You’ll be remembered for your efforts, not your failures, and all the infectious fun.