A few maxims that serve me well, which might or might not serve you well. include:

• Reward the behavior I want, ignore the behavior I don't want.

• Get enough sleep. It's amazing how much smarter and more pleasant other people become when I'm not tired.

• Attend to likely motives. In particular, if someone says something, consider what they intend to accomplish by doing so. If I'm not sure, then I don't actually yet understand what they said, regardless of the words they used.

• Attend to the next thing. That is, large projects and future goals and so forth just tend to distract or overwhelm me; to make progress, I need to know what the next action/decision is, and the one after that, and the one after that.

• As K&P put it: "When you make a decision, do something. Don't just go somewhere or make another decision."