Example:
"More Effort" is good for [non-creative] tasks, like building a wall or cleaning your room. But when it comes to creative tasks - like writing a novel or music - it is good to get your mind in a placid state where the work feels effortless.
i.e, it's a task you don't really have to think much about while doing. It's not cognitive, per se.
I would suggest the word "menial". I assume you're trying to draw a contrast between the use of higher and lower function. However, building a wall is not as menial as cleaning. Perhaps you should consider changing that piece of your sentence.
menial –MW
noun: used to describe boring or unpleasant work that does not require special skill and usually does not pay much money
adjective: lacking interest or dignity (a menial task)
"More Effort" is good for menial tasks, but not when it comes to creative tasks.
- routine; a fixed, habitual, or mechanical course of procedure: the rote of daily living.
- proceeding mechanically and repetitiously; being mechanical and repetitious in nature; routine; habitual: rote performance; rote implementation;
Almost all the existing answers have a negative connotation, and imply the non-creative tasks are unskilled or aren't respect-worthy.
This doesn't suit many highly skilled non-creative tasks, from bricklaying (in the asker's example, a highly skilled trade) to landing a plane or anaesthetising a patient. Here's an answer that works for non-creative tasks of all skill levels.
Example from Indiana University content:
A procedural task involves performing a procedure, which is a sequence of activities to achieve a goal.
The difference between creative, procedural and declarative aptitudes and knowledge is quite an important one in education research and applied psychology. Here's an example:
These are tasks that use "how-to" procedural knowledge:
Procedural knowledge, also known as imperative knowledge, is the knowledge exercised in the performance of some task
...which isn't limited to "grunt work", but also includes things like, for example, performing the core procedures involved in a certain type of surgery correctly each time. Much like the asker's example sentence, much education research around learning procedural skills does emphasise the importance of repetition and focussed effort, for example in the context of medical training:
Evaluating clinical simulations for learning procedural skills... (1) Simulations should allow for sustained, deliberate practice within a safe environment, ensuring that recently-acquired skills are consolidated...
A slang term for this is grunt work.
One term that comes to mind is drudge-work:
work that is menial and tedious and therefore distasteful; drudgery.
A task that is non-creative, repetitive, and usually boring could be called a chore:
: a small job that is done regularly
: a dull, unpleasant, or difficult job or experience
[Merriam-Webster]
I feel this word is especially well-suited because it can even be used describe tasks that aren't typically thought of as chores when you want to say a task is boring or tedious.
Wall building is such a chore.
I think mundane or unimaginative is more appropriate here.
Menial always carries a tone of doing something that is less dignified, and I think there is nothing necessarily menial about cleaning your room.
mechanical
1 a (1) : of or relating to machinery or tools (2) : produced or operated by a machine or tool b : of or relating to manual operations
2 : of or relating to artisans or machinists
3 a : done as if by machine : seemingly uninfluenced by the mind or emotions : automatic b : of or relating to technicalities or petty matters
4 a : relating to, governed by, or in accordance with the principles of mechanics b : relating to the quantitative relations of force and matter
5 : caused by, resulting from, or relating to a process that involves a purely physical as opposed to a chemical or biological change or process http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mechanical
If the question remains task focused scut work trivial, unrewarding, tedious, dirty, and disagreeable chores
If it changes as Phil Sweet suggests perhaps disengagement the act of releasing from an attachment or connection
I'll go with, uncreative
Beauvoir describes woman's situation as contributing to a life of repetitive and uncreative tasks: washing dishes, changing diapers, making food. While these tasks provide the means to an authentic life, they do not constitute creative ends themselves.
uncreative
Not having or involving imagination or original ideas: repetitive and uncreative work
A word which may at least connote what you desire yet whose usage is anything but "everyday, commonplace, or ordinary" would be quotidian.
Routinary or mechanical
routinary adjective Characterized by an adherence to routine; of or relating to routine; mechanical, unvaried; (of a person) that acts according to routine.
mechanical adjective (Of an action) done without thought or spontaneity; automatic: she stopped the mechanical brushing of her hair
That would be in the zone. It's not necessarily as casual a term as you might suspect.
informal
If you are in the zone, you are happy or excited because you are doing something very skilfully and easily.
Cambridge Dictionaries online
Flow
Jeanne Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi identify the following six factors as encompassing an experience of flow.
Intense and focused concentration on the present moment.
Merging of action and awareness.
A loss of reflective self-consciousness.
A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity.
A distortion of temporal experience, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, also referred to as autotelic experience.
The word servile is used by the Catholic Church to distinguish between intellectual/creative pursuits and manual/non-creative tasks. I do not know if other churches use similar terminology when describing how to "Honor the Sabbath"
In everyday usage, though, "servile" does seem to carry a negative conmnotation, but from your example:
"More Effort" is good for servile tasks, like building a wall or cleaning your room
Some of the other answers come close, but I'd like to suggest
routine
Unlike some of the other suggestions, there is no negative connotation of a routine task per se.
