Best workflow tweaks that nobody talks about

Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. For context, I am working with a pretty modest budget so high-end suggestions probably will not land.

Posting this here because the relevant subreddit has gotten too noisy lately. I tried three different approaches and none of them felt quite right. There is a lot of conflicting advice online and most of it is from 2019.

Quick context: I am relatively new to this and trying to find my footing. Looking for honest feedback, not validation. Been thinking about this for a while and curious what the community thinks.