I've been working on the "slow down and look ahead" thing and it's actually helping! My 3x3 avg was a little above 30s, and now it's a little under 30s. But on a good day when I'm being very mindful of looking ahead, I'm consistently getting ao12s around 25s.
Hey that's great! That's definitely something I struggle with. How about inspection, are you also able to plan ahead more?
Honestly I've been a little lazy about inspection. I take 5-10 seconds to plan the cross, and as soon as I have that, I just hit the timer. In fact I don't even plan the whole cross sometimes -- If the 4th edge isn't easy, I'll do a "I'll figure that out when I get to it." But I really should train in planning the first f2l case during inspection! I think it'd shave some seconds off.
That’s the same with me. I just inspect to find the cross. I’ve tried a few times to also plan first pair but I find it quite difficult. I think at this point if the cross is really easy then I might be able to track the first pair’s corner but not the edge.
I'm also in the same boat but I find it helps if I have a piece of the white cross on the yellow side because I know I'm flipping that, so if there is an F2L corner next to it I know that is going to be on the bottom, and I can eliminate it as a first pair. Also if the corner is on the bottom I can mentally set that as my first pair and hope the edge piece is visible when the cross is made.
It's not fool proof but it's better than not having a plan.