If you have an equatorial mount, polar align it at least roughly. Now the mounts motions follow the four cardinal directions. Turn the finder's eyepiece to make its crosshairs line up with these directions too. The magnitude-symbols used to show the stars do not accurately reflect the way we perceive stellar brightness, so don't be caught by brightness discrepancies when using a starchart. Pay particular attention to star's positions.
Triangles are the most basic units of star-hops.
Pay close attention to their shapes. Know your scale. It involves the fact that I have four aids that allow me to easily and confidently move to fairly exact location in the sky. I get the general idea of where I want to go in the sky with the Telrad and Bright Star Atlas. Now that I am on the starting location I am ready to move up to a deeper magnitude.