Doing it halfass and not thinking it will help, surely it will not help the skeptical practitioner who goes through the motions with no intent. What is carpal tunnel, an inflammatory response of the nerves going into the hand - pete, are you saying that proper exercise wont help physical ailment? By that rationale, are you as skeptical of physical therapy? Moving qigong is the additional focus of breath and intent to the physical motion. What's the western medicine approach to this issue? Cut dren out until there's nothing left to inflame the region and or rely on antiinflammatories simply "because its easier." Relying on oneself requires some effort.
As such tamod, take the extreme skeptical track with a grain of salt - it is of course necessary and proper to proceed through the line of reasoning for yourself and question critically - the decision is yours to make and yours to own. If you truly have the intent and assert yourself then you can absolutely obtain results. Here's a couple things that might help you:
Try a shaking zhan zhuang: assume the normal zz posture (knees bent, hips rotated with tailbone tucked, shoulders relaxed, tuck the chin slightly and gently lift the head...) then point the elbows outward with the palms facing back, and then bounce up and down by moving the knees forward and back a couple inches. This exercise should loosen all of the body's major joints (spine aside) - and if you take notice, when you point the elbows out while doing this it makes these nice little ellipses for the wrists. Try that a couple times a day for a few minutes.
You can also do wrist rotations in a little more active of a fashion using a quasi embrace the tree posture, except instead of having the palms facing each other, face them down instead, and make the same elliptical motions with the wrists. Feel all of the space in the wrists and even seek to expand the space as you do the exercise. Work with turning them in different directions - facing the chest, work the range of motion but naturally be careful of extending the wrist too much (think motion - flexion vs extension.)
Once you're done with movement, settle in stillness afterward with the arms/hands loose and that is also a good time to feel the space in the wrists.
If you're going to take the responsibility and do this yourself then you must be diligent, do it every day but also do not overtrain and understand that resting is a crucial component of training.
Good luck! /\