Since you're a self-proclaimed beginner I would recommend what I do. All of the above mentioned points are important, but often your cities will go into disorder first before you change the luxeries, etc. This causes a loss of production for atleast a turn.
Right-click on a city.
Contact the governor.
At the top select the governor to manage citizen moods in all of your cities.
A few times, I've wanted to relocate the workers in my citizens, but for the most part I think the governor does an excellent job. City growth will no longer cue disorder. The only times a city will go into disorder from my experience is by the sudden loss of a luxery or war weariness, and the governor will automatically adjust the moods for the next turn.
The loss of being able to micromanage the tiles worked by your city is made up for by no longer having to check your cities each turn for growth that could cause disorder. Using the governor, either stops most lost production from disorder, or speeds up the game so you can spend your attention elsewhere depending on your style of play (or both).
You can also instruct the governor to emphasize food, shields or commerce. The governor seems very smart. Since I leave it on from the beginning, I've seen the governor switch tiles from a two shield tile to a three food tile while waiting a few turns for my settler in a pop 2 city.
Has anyone had any problems with the governor managing moods?