Back in the day, I spent a fair amount of time playing Minecraft at the hard level. I did OK but my sister consistently beat me by large margins, completing in

Back in the day, I spent a fair amount of time playing Minecraft at the hard level. I did OK but my sister consistently beat me by large margins, completing in about 2/3 of the time that I used. It was a bit frustrating to be beaten that thoroughly. Her advice, as I recall, was to never pause to think. When running out of no-brainers around one area, immediately skip to another area. When running out of easy options, take a chance. It worked well for her but I never managed to make it work for me. I'd always stop at some point to ponder for ten seconds.