And one more that can make a huge difference:
Change your blade often enough!
Frankly, this was one of the things I had the hardest time wrapping my ever-so-logical mind around. "But it's only cardstock", it would say, "surely this stainless steel blade isn't going to dull from cutting a few reams of cardstock!"
Face it, if you're going to blow through a good part of a set of ink cartridges, you might as well splurge a little and get another 15-pack of Xacto blades for $5. Your fingers will thank you for it!
(PS: this holds doubly so when you're cutting foamboard or matboard... *always* use a fresh blade for these. If you feel stingy, you can save old blades for scoring.)
) I found a snap off blade knife at Dollar tree that suirs me to a T. Sadly, they have not had it since... otherwise I would by several more. But since I was not expecting to find a good knife at Dollar Tree, so I did not pick them up at the time. It was a short term solution that proved much better than I expected. 