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Living with a Garmin:

Less is More

Try not to use more Waypoints than you need to.

This is nothing to do with the 'Waypoints limits' (which I discuss in another article) but its about giving each route point a bit of personal space so it can do a better job.
I think one of the main 'killer features' of GPS - that nothing else can replicate - is the Next ability.
That is, fields such as Distance to Next or Time to Next. When following a route its extremely useful to know how far it is to the next navigational instruction - if its say more than 1km away then (on a bike) you know you can enjoy other aspects of your ride - the scenery, or the company - and don't need to pay any attention to the GPS. If, on the other hand, its less than 400m or so, you know that there is navigation coming up and at least part of you will be looking out for signage etc.

So my point about Less is More has to do with getting as much advance notice of the next turn instruction as possible. If your route goes along a 5km winding lane and then turns right at the end - try not to put too many 'shape' or 'check' waypoints along that lane. Especially don't put any near the end, because if you do, these just mask the only important waypoint, which is the turn instruction.
Sometimes a 'check' point is helpful - especially shortly after a 'bear left' type of turn, say 100m or 200m down the road.
Sometimes a 'shape' point is nice - if the road is wandering a long way off the 'direct' line - and if a road bends sharp right and then hits a junction its very tempting to waypoint the bend so that the junction shape looks correct. In this last case, its best to resist the temptation to insert a shaping waypoint, because it will simply prevent you getting good advance notice of the turn instruction.

Francis Cooke