Pausing for an hour to think about and understand your problem is important in any language. Probably more important than testing honestly.
The final few sketches almost always end up simpler than the original idea seemed!
I also try to follow ESR's paraphrasing of Fred Brooks:
"Show me your code and conceal your data structures, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your data structures, and I won't usually need your code; it'll be obvious."
I think this concept is actually more important than the choice of language.