My steps to gung fu have been (and I make no claim to purity here, I
am still putting things together from various instruction webpages
I've read and messages from various tea lists):

1-heat the water, set out the equipment (yixing pot, fair cup,
drinking and/or smelling cup)

2-pour boiling water into and over the pot and the cups (and yes I had
been pouring it over the handle, I was more careful last night and the
handle was better. Cups were still hot, no way to get around that)

3-let sit for a few seconds to heat up the teawares, then pour out
boiling water from everything (here's the first and worst place
usually that I get my fingers burned)

4-put leaves in teapot, put lid on, let sit for around 10-15 seconds.
Open lid, smell, enjoy. repeat as liked a few times (can reheat pot by
pouring a little water over the outside)

5-pour a little water into leaves or the whole amount of water onto
leaves. I have not been rinsing my leaves this batch as it seems like
it might waste flavor and all I have is the one sample right now. I do
rinse puer if I am brewing that though. Put on lid. Steep tea, pour a
little water over the outside. I have heard of people filling the
steeping water til it overflows the outside of the pot a little, I
would do that if this oolong weren't in such short supply for me.

6-Steep for however long your first steep in going to be. Pour out
(decant). This Yixing pot I'm using now (my first) has a tiny little
hole in it's spout, pours rather slowly. I'll remember that for the
next one I get.

7-Drink how you're going to, repeat steeps as desired, etc.

The worst part of burning fingers, as I said, is when I'm dealing with
the boiling water when rinsing the pot and the cups especially, when
pouring out the water into the "sink". Maybe my cups are a little too
big or something...the one holds about 5 OZ. Can't really use
chopsticks with it because of the weight. (As a secondary comment, I'm
going to be more careful about the second yixing I buy...the handle on
this one is really rather delicate when I've got the pot filled with
water. I'm not afraid it will break, it just feels too small for the
weight of the pot).

The towel suggestion might be the best at this point. My husband
recommended rubber kitchen gloves. Both kind of take away from the
artistry of it so I'll have to maybe adjust my times or something, not
sure yet. Any more comments? Thanks for the advice so far
though...I've never seen anyone actually do this so I'm learning by
reading and by doing as it were. Thanks again

Melinda