When working with Spring annotations, follow these guidelines to avoid common issues: 1. **Use interface types for dependency injection**: When autowiring dependencies, declare fields using the interface type rather than the implementation class. This ensures proper behavior with proxies and AOP. ```java // RECOMMENDED @Autowired private Pojo self; // Interface type // AVOID (unless you're certain CGLIB proxies are being used) @Autowired private SimplePojo self; // Implementation type ``` 2. **Remember @Bean flexibility**: Methods annotated with `@Bean` can be defined in any `@Component`-annotated class, not just in `@Configuration` classes. 3. **Avoid annotation-based injection in infrastructure classes**: Do not use `@Autowired`, `@Inject`, or `@Resource` annotations within BeanFactory implementations or their dependencies. This can cause `BeanCurrentlyInCreationException` due to initialization timing issues. Use programmatic lookups instead for these infrastructure components. Following these practices will help prevent subtle runtime errors and improve the maintainability of your Spring applications.