What I'd tell someone who just got their first RFE, before the panic sets in

Remembering my own reaction to opening that letter and wanting to write down what actually helped versus what I initially, unhelpfully, did first (which was reread it four times in a row without taking any actual notes, just spiraling). What helped once I got past that: printing it out and physically marking each distinct objection with a number, rather than trying to hold the whole document in my head. Suddenly a dense multi-page letter became a list of 4 or 5 concrete things, which is a completely different, much less overwhelming problem than "the government has doubts about my entire case." The other thing that helped: giving myself permission to not start drafting the response immediately. I spent the first few days just understanding exactly what was being asked, without any pressure to already be solving it. The deadline felt tight, but rushing into drafting before fully understanding the objections cost me more time in revisions than the few days of just reading and categorizing carefully would have.