[matt_morgan]

This sounds like what I did in high school and college, where I did pretty well for grades etc. By grad school I was doing funner things, and then the first 15 or so years of working, I worked pretty hard and was productive. Since then I don't think I can measure what I do in terms of productivity; I'm a manager (every day) and strategist (on good days) and if I have a good idea, it's rare and unpredictable.

So I would ask, are you providing value in some other way? In school I got a lot of informal extra credit, or at least good will, by participating in class a lot even when I hadn't done reading or homework. I'm sure that alone caused teachers to bump me up a half-grade or better. And then after 30 years of working I still do kind of the same thing by being useful at meetings and in figuring out what work can and should be done, defending and supporting my colleagues and staff, and otherwise being a good influence around the office. What I'm saying is you might have other skills you're not recognizing.