Just realized my thermal paste routine was way off for years

For like 6 years I did the pea method on every CPU, never thought twice about it. Then last month I rebuilt a buddy's old gaming rig and decided to actually watch some teardown videos from people who measure contact pressure. Turns out my paste was always spreading uneven because I was using too much, like a full pea when most modern CPUs only need a grain of rice sized dot, especially with the bigger IHS on AM5. I redid my own machine with less paste and my idle temps dropped from 45 to 37 degrees, that's a solid difference for zero cost. It made me wonder how many other basic habits I've got that are just outdated or wrong. Anyone else ever had a simple routine tweak that changed your results this much? What else am I probably doing wrong that you all figured out ages ago?