Not to brag or anything, but I think the biggest improvement I've made so far this year is to be calmer when talking with technical support people. My mother used to say you catch more flies with sugar than vinegar.
I don't recall where I first heard this, but I wanted to get it down while I'm thinking about it and before I delete it from my Evernote files. All, or certainly most, problems with technology can be boiled down into three main areas and only two sources. The more you can simplify things, the easier it is to troubleshoot.