avoiding fake work
first off, if you haven't read the PG essay how to lose time and money - it's a must read. he states that having fun & not doing work is awesome, and doing great work is awesome, but the real killer is when you're not having fun and you're not doing your best and most focused work.
a few years ago, I found myself just sitting at my desk and being 'on the clock'. if I had any downtime, I would spend it sending emails, browsing slack, being in meetings, messaging people, scrolling my phone, etc. I thought this was productive, I thought this was the norm. I would feel guilty not "working" - but I failed to realize that I was wasting hours of my life on slack and emails.
a better approach I've found is to just be at my desk when conducting deep and meaningful work. it reduces my baseline stress levels a ton, and lets me work when I have the highest energy and intent to do my best work. if I find that I'm not being particularly productive, I'll try and just go on a walk. I end up getting ~10,000 steps a day through this.
I try to do as many walking meetings as possible. there's been tons of research done on how walking spikes creativity and helps you achieve flow states. it also makes meetings shorter, and you can cut to the chase.
something Kobe used to say was to always focus on the task at hand. if you're having fun doing something, focus on having as much fun as possible. if you're working on something, focus on doing your best work possible. don't cross-contaminate. this makes life much more meditative and fulfilling - because you can sort of have your cake and eat it too.
obviously, sometimes you just have to do "fake work" - but I try and do this in an environment that isn't my core working area.