Work
"Work" is where a player must do non-entertaining physical or mental tasks, in order for the game to function.
Work is bad
Keep it to a minimum.
Work that's a regular part of the game turn, is a huge negative. You should consider changing your game significantly, to remove such work. It is not a minor matter.
It's also very easy to forget to do the work, and have to fix up the game.
Physical work
Your game should have minimal setup and teardown.
I've seen numerous positive mentions of Radlands having almost no setup. You just shuffle and begin. It's really nice.
Some games are adjusted for different player counts, by forcing the players to go through each deck, and remove certain cards. While pre-game work is better than in-game work, onerous pre-game work is too often excused.
When you play Bärenpark with less than four players, it tells you to remove some combination of tiles from each of the piles of tiles numbered 1-7. Do I really have to do that? Would the game be terrible if there were just too many of those tiles? This is in addition to having to arrange all the game's components on a board to begin with.
Other games force the players to put cards in certain places, like 15 cards from the bottom of the deck. Don't do that either, please.
Go through your turn structure, and try to remove everything you can. Try to get that maintenance step out of your turn.
Avoid card rows that you need to replenish every time a card is taken. Maybe a player can pay to replenish the row in one action. Especially, avoid card rows that slide along.
Turn maintenance steps into significant actions a player can take.
Calculation
Yes, it's nice to find an exact mathematical equation that matches your design objectives, but players don't want to do mathematics.
Points tables are better than formulae, but not by much. Can things just be worth a certain number of points each?
Keep numbers as small as possible. Not everyone is good at mathematics. I can total five dice, or add 16 and 27 instantly. Many people can't, and I would still rather not have to do it.
Halve all the numbers in your game. Does it still work properly? Good. Keep going. You might like the exact ratio of the buildings worth two and seven points, but just make them one and three points, please.
Something in your game should be worth one point. If that's not the case, your point values are too high.
Scoring
Don't make the players get out a pad at the end of the game, and add up.
If you just print points values on things that are worth points, and there's no mathematics or tables, players can just add up their pieces.
If you can't print point values on your objects, just make a few valuable-seeming ones be worth points.
Also, most things should be worth zero points.
Observation
A player must be observant, to make sure a condition is or isn't being met, or must constantly evaluate known information, such as how much money each opponent has.
The game Dead of Winter contains "crossroad" cards. The player who draws it keeps it secret, and when the secret condition on the card is met, the player reveals the card, and something happens. People like these, but they generate an ongoing and distracting observation task for the players, and a high potential for mistakes.
Counting
Try not to make exact high numbers matter.
In Race for the Galaxy, players must discard down to ten cards in hand at the end of each of their turns. That means every large hand of cards needs to be constantly counted.
Magic's Odyssey expansion introduced the "threshold" mechanic. While seven or more cards are in your discard pile, some bonus effect occurs. This requires that players constantly tally the number of cards in their discard piles.
A better way to do this is to make the number only be counted at certain points, or when certain things happen.
In Catan, whenever any player rolls a 7, all players with more than seven cards discard half their cards. This is much less work than forcing players to discard down to seven cards at the end of every turn.
Scoring
Does your game have to have "point salad", where everything is worth points? Can you make lots of things just be worth the same number of points? Can you just make things worth nothing?
I've dealt with this problem in my farming game. There is no scoring of your farm. You just reveal your objective cards, and add them up.
Memory issues
Memory issues are where a player must remember something. This might be in order to make the game function properly, but is usually just advantageous information that the player should keep a mental note of.
"Look at a player's hand. They discard a card of your choice." That's a decent ability, but the player really should take note of all their opponent's other cards, and keep them in mind. That's not fun, but you're a bad player if you don't.
In Splendor, players can reserve cards from the table, to buy later. However, when they do, they turn the card face down. Players should take note of this likely-important card, but that's mentally taxing, so they don't. Later, the player plays the card, and wins.
I don't like to have to keep something in mind. I just want to think about my strategy. If there's something that people have to be forced to remember, get rid of it. Alternatively, make it something good, that they'll want to remember. Or, make it something big, that they'd notice if they forgot. Or, use a physical component or cue to remind you.
Some games are about memory. That's fine, but most people don't really like memory games.
Once information has been made public, try to keep it public, or throw it away.
Referring
Don't make the players look up data. Everything in the game should be memorisable. This includes the game setup.
Cards with text should be self-explanatory. If a normal person will read the card, and need to check the FAQ, the card needs to be rewritten.
Add a reward
If players can get an immediate benefit from doing work, they'll be less likely to feel bad about it, or forget to do it.
In my pirate game, at the end of each player's turn, they had to roll the die, and do some maintenance. This was a drag. I moved the roll to the start of the turn, and made the die mostly give the player movement, and only occasionally do some maintenance.