Russian vocabulary (see Russian Vocabulary) rewards noticing two specific patterns: root-and-prefix families, and the everyday/formal doublets inherited from Old Church Slavonic.
A handful of common prefixes shift a root's meaning in fairly consistent ways across many different roots — learning these prefix meanings directly makes unfamiliar prefixed words more guessable than treating each one as an isolated vocabulary item.
When two Russian words for a similar concept feel like near-synonyms, check whether one is the everyday form and the other a more formal, Old-Church-Slavonic-derived form — recognizing this pattern explains a lot of vocabulary you'd otherwise have to memorize as unrelated pairs.
Since gender affects adjective and past-tense verb agreement, attach a noun's gender the moment you learn it rather than treating gender as a separate fact to add later.
Since Russian verbs are effectively learned in aspect pairs (see Russian Verbs), treat each pair as a single vocabulary "entry" with two forms, rather than two unrelated words to memorize separately.
See also the reference page: Russian Vocabulary.
A handful of common prefixes shift a root's meaning in fairly consistent ways across many roots — learning prefix meanings directly makes unfamiliar prefixed words more guessable than memorizing each one separately.
Often because one is the everyday native word and the other derives from Old Church Slavonic, carrying a more formal or elevated register — recognizing this pattern explains many vocabulary pairs at once.
With their gender attached from the very first encounter, since gender affects adjective and past-tense verb agreement throughout the language.
As one — treating the imperfective and perfective forms as a single vocabulary "entry" with two forms reflects how they're actually used and avoids having to relearn common verbs later.