Best practices to keep AC working efficiently through summer?

I'm trying to be proactive this year instead of waiting for my car AC to fail in the middle of July. Last summer it struggled to keep the car cool on the hottest days and I had to get it recharged twice which didn't feel normal. I've been looking into maintaining vehicle cooling efficiency to understand what regular upkeep actually involves beyond just using the AC. Some sources mention running the system regularly even in winter others talk about cleaning condenser fins. For those of you who never have AC problems what does your yearly maintenance routine look like and is there anything you recommend doing before the really intense heat arrives?