How to find a seat - that is hard to beat

How often have you been left with an unattarctive seat in the plane. Quite often I would assume. Most of us tend to prefer an isle or a window seat. Especially the emergency exit seats with extra leg room (mmmm) tend to be very attractive.
But how come that someone else is always lucky and get those seats and I get stuck in the middle of a five seat row on a 777 or just in front of a wall?
Fortunately your problem is quite easy to manage. First step is to always assure that you have a pre-assigned seat on the so called seat map, from that you can start working upwards, without you are in stand-by-ish mode and subject to suffer.
Second, when you know your number and the plane type, check-out where your assigned seat is located, and with the excellent support of http://www.seatguru.com/ (that you of course have bookmarked on your cellphone) your are off to a flying start.
Last but not least, the rest is just about big smiles and nice talking at the check-in desk, where a gold coloured card might come in handy. That is all for now.