The one that worked extremely well for me was to pre-stabilise every jump point and require every interstellar thing to either have its own jump drive or be docked at something that has one. That way I avoid all the jump tenders and mess I just don't really like to be fair, both from gameplay and lore perspective, getting more classic sci-fi approach to FTL travel and the all jump points stable option made nprs surprisingly more dangreous, because they could find me much quicker not wasting time to stabilise jump points and now I can't even detect them unless I really detect them - everything is stable, not just stuff nprs had visited already.
Also I do care about my exploration ships and try to avoid getting them killed whenever possible, giving them armor, sometimes gauss and all that or trying to get them fast enough to have a chance at running away.
Oh, and I play without civilians, too. Painful at the start, but so satisfying knowing I transported it all by myself and am rewarded with less lag sources.