Know your strengths

And your weaknesses. Then, play to your strengths. (Keep working on your improving the areas where you're weak, but do that during practice -- not during game-time.)

I own two hand planes. They are not fine tuned, and I am not particularly expert at using them. However, I do know when to use them; I know when they will come in handy.

I've been edge banding plywood for a cabinet. Instead of milling the edge banding exactly, I've left it wide, with the intention of using a flush-trim route bit to get everything just right.

I could have used the router to hog off all of the excess, but that creates more dust than necessary. Enter the low-angle block plane.

I'm too novice a hand-planer to rely solely on that tool to true up the edges. But it was no trouble at all to bring the material down to 1/16". The router handled the rest. Sawdust was cut by about eighty percent, I saved some wear on my router bit, and I felt good using a hand tool.

No tear out, and lots of wins.