+1 for a facial-hair-growth-map. that's always a great thing to do.
I've found its really helpful (YMMV) to create the shaving equivalent of a pre-shot routine, like you see golfers doing before a shot, or basketball players doing before a freethrow. So I always do the same things before I shave, and I try to shave the same places, the same way, in the same order, every time. Its kindof a zen thing, cause once I got it down, it took some of the mentality out of it, and now i can listen to music, or NPR, or just do nothing while I shave, and let my thoughts drift.
The next step may be buying an inexpensive razor from ebay and attempt to learn honing. Or try stropping with additional speed. Or try making uberlather. Or maybe experimenting with different soaps or creams.
Or anything.
Thing is, once your stropping and shaving technique are good, you can really experiment and explore. That's one of the things that drew me to straight shaving: The amount of things to learn is endless, and once you have the fundamentals down, you can go anywhere with it. Enjoy the journey.