Talking too much won’t get him to take out the trash either. If you need your man to do something, make your request and keep it short. Don’t go on and on. “Men will feel like they’re just being lectured,” Mansfield says. “His eyes will gloss over.”

No. 5: Don’t Initiate Important Discussions in a Car.
This may seem simple, but follow this advice and you’ll save yourself lots of headaches. “I have talked to hundreds of couples who have screaming arguments in a car,” Mansfield says. The reason for these arguments? Lack of eye contact. When driving, your eyes are glued to the road, not to the person in the passenger seat. Misunderstandings can happen easily. “Effective communication involves eye contact,” Mansfield says. For the same reason, don’t have important talks in the dark of the bedroom either. Not only is there no eye contact, but you can’t see body language either.

No. 6: Don’t Make Assumptions.
The multitude of books on relationships would make you believe that the sexes are so far apart they hail from different planets, with men coming from Mars and women from Venus. “There’s lots and lots written about this,” says Phillip Glenn, professor in the department of organizational and political communication at Boston’s Emerson College. “In my opinion, books like this overstate the differences.”