Do's and Donts

Do’s

Do check the Missive Board for quests ranging from simple deliveries to clearing caves. For beginners, the delivery quests are a good source of gold. Picking up the vampire quests will allow you to claim the reward even if the guards killed it, though you may have to travel to The Pale in order to deliver the missive to a Vigilant of Stendarr in order to collect it.
Do plan what you want your character to be, and allocate your perks accordingly. Perks are precious - don’t use them for the sake of using them. If you can’t get a perk you want right now, save that perk point, especially if there’s nothing else WORTH getting for your build at the time.
Make sure you are clean and clothed before you try to buy from or sell to shop-keepers as they will severely overcharge you if you’re dirty and/or naked. In addition, certain soaps also give skill bonuses, so make sure you use the correct soap for what you want to do.
Craft yourself a chest or barrel. If you’re setting up a permanent camp, give yourself somewhere to store excess stuff you don’t need to carry with you while exploring. This is also recommended if your horse dies while you’re in a cave or adventuring, just in case you’re storing all your things in saddlebags. You never know if a body will remain where it is, so a box is a safer bet until you can acquire a new mount.
Use the “L” to toggle off your lantern when sneaking. Enemies can see you in lantern light!
Build campfires regularly to check the skills menu. Campfire perks are exceptionally useful! A max level campfire gives you a 5% XP gain increase, and some skills can make swimming in glacial waters less deadly, especially helpful in the Sea of Ghosts.
Make sure you always have a stew buff as it provides stamina over time. Nothing will kill you quicker than being disarmed when you run out of Stamina.
Favourite items you don’t want to breakdown, such as Toolkits, lantern, Mortar and Pestle, and weapons.
Breakdown items that you dont intend to sell and the value/weight is too high, but want to convert for crafting - it can reduce the carry weight of the item significantly.

Dont’s

Don’t rely on a SINGLE save. You don’t want to hit a game breaking bug due to Skyrim being Skyrim and lose all your progress. It’s recommended to have a minimum of the 10 most recent saves (the more the better).
Don’t expect to be tackling Bleak Falls Barrow at level 1. You wouldn’t expect to be killing a bandit horde within 5 minutes of picking up a sword for the first time in real life. You need to train up first.
Don’t expect to be good at a skill if you don’t invest perk points in it - This is best illustrated by the heavy armor skill. You can have 100 in heavy armor, but without perks, all that does is give your armor rating a minimal increase (with a full set of legendary steel plate armor it has 505 armor at (skill) level 6 and 550 at level 100). Without spending points on heavy armor skills, you lose stamina even while standing completely still, and when you are moving it’s at a snail’s pace! With the right perks, however, you can regenerate stamina while walking and move at normal speeds.
Don’t run around like a madman if you don’t need to. You can toggle between walking and running using the “Caps Lock” key.
Don’t be afraid to run if you’re outnumbered, but be aware some enemies can use doors just as well as you can!
Never go north without some way to keep warm in case of snowstorm. A tent, kindling, tinder, and wood should always be in your backpack/horse.
Dont pick up everything, only pick up items that you intend to sell or breakdown for crafting. Only pick up food when you need it.