So you bought a mud pan, trowels and some mud and fixed that hole in the wall, or crack in the plaster, small job, not a problem, save them in the garage for next time.
Now, if your job is bigger than that, say, remodel a bedroom, kitchen, or even a whole house you will then need to be a little more organized in your approach to drywall repairs, which now can be called a big drywall project.
You need to keep things in order to save time, frustration and finish with good results.
Let's start with the basics, you need 3, five gallon plastic buckets, one for All Purpose mud, one for Topping and one for rinse with just water.
I use clean 5 gallon paint buckets with lids, if you do not have any around, buy your first mud types in the plastic containers and use them throughout the job.
Any more mud beyond those, buy the pre-mixed mud in the cardboard boxes, it will be much cheaper.
All purpose mud will be used for 1st coat taping and heavy fill areas, Topping is used after that for the 2nd, 3rd and touch up coats or broad skimming, it is easier to sand and goes on smoother.
Add to your tools one of those large potato mashers because you don't want to use the mud right out the box and without adding some water to it.
After that first bucket empties, grasp the mud bag out of the box and hold it over the clean empty bucket and slice open the bottom of the bag and let the mud drop into the bucket and add about a quart of clean water and mix until smooth.
The amount of water is not critical but if the mud is falling off your trowel a lot, then it is to wet.
The main reasons for using mud out of buckets are, needing to add water into the mud and being able to mix it, keeping your mud and bucket clean by "raking" clean the sides as quantity drops in the bucket and for storing overnight or a few days or weeks if necessary.
Most of all it is just easier to get mud in and out of a bucket.
At night, instead of clamping that hard to open, mud encrusted lid onto the bucket, just smooth the top of the mud flat with your taping knife (trowel) and gently pour about a 1/2 inch of water onto the top of the mud, enough to cover the mud, and set the lid on it and it will be good overnight or even a few days.
The next time you use it, just pour the water off the top, mix a little again with a masher and you are ready to go.
This helps keep your mud from getting dry and crusty around the edges, especially in hot dry weather.
Be sure to rinse the masher off too.
Speaking of hot dry weather, one thing some finishers do is wet the paper tape before applying it to the surface, this helps remove air and and decreases the chance of bubbles under the tape, if you are in a hot dry climate with low humidity, this is a must and is not any harder to do, I prefer to wet the tape all the time regardless of the weather, I then know it will bond for sure.
If you get any bubbles, they will show up in your 2nd coat, stop there and cut the tape out with a utility knife if it is small and continue to mud.
If it is a larger area that did not bond, re tape and keep going on with 2nd coat.
Sometimes, after the 1st coat has dried, you can run your hand over the joint and "hear" a bubble, it will sound different if it did not bond, if you find one or two you can fix them before 2nd coat.
As I get into the 3rd and final touch up coats, I really want my mud to be clean, so I rinse in the water bucket as often as needed when the mud dries around the edges of the mud pan, and keep the lids on the buckets if there is other work activity going on at the same time, we don't want sawdust in the buckets, or anything else for that matter.
Be sure to clean all your tools at the end of work time or over night, they will last longer and you won't be scraping dry mud off later.