Also, in the case of the manager working 80 hours, remember that the definition is about effort, not about number of hours. People need not believe that effort is strictly correlated with number of hours.

Yes, normal people associate working 80 hours with effort and on LW you might have people who don't. The thing that matters for trying is effort.

The main point is that exerting effort and doing what's necessary to achieve an objective are two different things.

There are certain effects that can be achieved in trance that you can achieve if you exert effort. Telekinesis isn't one of them, but it makes sense that a fictional character who can do telekinesis would need an effort less trance state to do it.

There are certain tasks like sitting in front of one's computer that where you will have less back pain if you invest less effort into the act of sitting (and in the Alexander technique you can learn how to do the task with less effort).

Than there's EY meaning that a lot of people will say "I will try" when they are asked to achieve an outcome where they aren't certain whether they can achieve it with the strategy they choose to persue the goal. They commit to investing some energy into following the strategy but they don't commit to the responsibility of making the outcome happen.