To steal a term from American Football, “you win by building the trenches.” What that means is that the exciting players who make diving catches, or 50 yard runs, or crushing blocks are rarely the way to build a team for success.
You have to build the boring, often-overlooked, and not-well-understood offensive and defensive lines to have a dominant and consistent team.
It’s the same with honing your skills or building your business. That data backup and recovery process is essential. The cleaning of your gear. The good cases for your equipment. The more efficient bookkeeping software.
This stuff isn’t the fun tools you use to make your artwork, photography, or films, but it’s the foundation that ensures you can keep using the fun tools and keep building your business into the future.
The same goes for skill acquisition. It’s the sharpening of the tools and the hours of practice, not the gallery show when everybody is gushing about your work, that is most important.
Grind away and focus on the boring stuff–especially if everyone else seems to ignore it–because it will become your greatest advantage in business, art, and life.