Positioning for me is the main work in designing PCB. If each element is where it is needed than routing is simple.
Till now all my PCBs are 2 layers and all of them have GND plane taking 100% of bottom layer. So except GND I design my PCBs as 1 layer. I use microcontrollers in QFP packages without thermal pad at bottom. This allows me to go with VCC under the microcontroller and go out through all corners and all VCC pins. That way GND and VCC don’t disturb my signal connections. At all digital lines I use serial 0603 resistors 47-100Ω. This makes switching current pulses lower and also helps if some tracks crosses. I prefer to use 0R then to make a hole in my GND plane. Free spaces at top I also fill with GND plane. All vias at my PCBs are GND.
Here is how it looks typically:
