A friend of mine once said "You move with the blinding speed of a retreating glacier.” I was taking a picture, several actually. For me slowing down, way down, is the only way I can function as a photographer. I know I must look like your favorite Labrador staring vacantly out the window, but the lab would tell you "we're thinking.”
When possible I will shoot the same thing in a variety of ways; horizontal, vertical, different F stops and shutter speeds. I’ll move two feet to each side and do it all over again. I pay very careful attention to what is actually in front of me. To stop myself from taking 87 pictures of the same thing I don't look at what’s in camera until everything in in the computer, I just trust the Histogram.