To improve is my goal

While my game has more holes than swiss cheese, I need to start somewhere if I'm ever going to get better. I work best if I have a plan... So, here are the aspects of my game I think I need the most work on to improve:

1. Competitive bidding judgment - While my overall bidding isn't particularly stellar, the few tools and gut guesses I have in complicated auctions are almost always wrong. I bid on when I should defend, I defend when I should bid on, and too often my bids don't mean what I think they mean.
2. Defensive cardplay - Counting, signaling, and overall defensive strategy are huge areas of need for me. I know, beyond a doubt, that I'm giving away tricks to most decent declarers.
   
3. Counting the hand - I mentioned this in defensive cardplay above because, for some reason, I have an easier time keeping track of cards when I'm declaring. However, I still have miles to go to get 'good'.
4. Controlling the tempo - If I slow down and think, I obviously play better than when I fly by the seat of my pants. I need to work on thinking slowly and carefully before making the play.

There are a ton of different ways I suppose I could go about working on all this. This, however, is the method I'm choosing for now. If anyone has an alternative (assuming, of course, than anyone besides me is reading this), I'd love to hear it.

• To help with my competitive bidding, I think the first thing is just to bid more and more hands. While there are certainly tools and principles I can sharpen, there's a ton of 'feeling' that I simply don't have. I also probably need a book on competitive bidding, but I'm going to focus my reading elsewhere for now...
• Defensively, I'm going to try to pick up Root's How to Defend a Bridge Hand and Kelsey's Killing Defense. I've heard really good things about both.
• Counting the hand is a matter of practice. I'm going to start forcing myself to count 2 suits in all hands. Probably, this will be trump and some other significant suit in my hand against suit contracts, and two solid suits in my hand against NT. This would be the next book front as well, prolly with Countdown to Winning Bridge and How to Read Your Opp's Cards.

As an overarching thing and to address tempo, I'm going to try to establish a 'pre-play routine'. If golfers need their waggle or basketball players need a routine for free-throws, I probably need one before bidding or playing a card.

Bidding

1. Evaluate hand using my occasional teacher's hand evaluator.
2. Do I have a forcing, invitational, minimal, or 'passer' kind of hand?
3. What do I know from the auction so far?
4. What is the right bid to make?
5. Really? Are you sure?

Play of the hand

1. What is the likely distribution (count and points) on the hand?
2. What did I learn from the last trick (signals, etc)?
3. What is my/declarer's plan? What are the threats to that plan?
4. If defending, what does partner need to know about the hand?
5. What is the right play to make?
6. Really? Are you sure?

Time to start a new wishlist at Amazon, I guess.