One of the things I find the most frustrating is proper micro.

- Do you grow fast or rush work boats with hammers?
- When is it worth sacrificing hammer/food for an extra coin, to speed up tech?
..etc

There's a bunch more different scenarios then just these two. Cause these are the small choices you have to make to jump up difficulty levels, and I just don't understand what should be priority.

Any guides or tips on this?

it depends

Chances are that it isn't one particular thing that is holding you back. I would sacrifice some short term growth to get a work boat out more quickly (having a forested hill is one of the considerations I would make when choosing where to settle my first city if it's next to the coast). I'll do the same for another wb if need be.

As for your second question, it will really depend. It will depend on how I want to use the city, the shape of my economy, am I racing against someone to a tech and need every little boost I can get. Trying to catch up in techs early isn't a huge worry for me.

The main thing about micro is knowing which tiles to improve first and choosing a proper tech path.

Check out the delayed caste thread and artichoker's game. Notice during the golden age he has a full food bin and at the end it will be empty as he starves the city to get more GS's out. Thats well worth remembering to set that up when you have a GA coming up.

If you worry about what your worker will do next? Build more :) Its not micro, its the different pace to the game. Hell I want to play the BOTM noble game, but I have no chance against others because I play deity now and have no clue what tech path would be optimal, when the wonders go etc..

Just play more starts quickly and try different things. Don't worry about playing it out. You just need to experience things yourself to have a feel for when you need to work a 2 commerce lake tile in order to get where you want to be.

The first option - consider the land around you. If you've got plenty of food resources on land then priority should be on workers. More fish in the sea? workboats. So with that in mind, it might be in your favour to rush a workboat to get those 2 fish and one clam hooked up sooner