You start your colony with 2 colonists.
But what are the best skills? What are the worst.

Instead of telling you exactly what you must have I will give my opinion of what are mandatory skills, and what is mandatory to avoid.

MUST HAVE:
1 colonist must have at least 1 star in doctor.

Good to have:
Good Health
Optimist

Avoid at all costs:
OverEater
Dumb
Pessimist
Bad Health

For the other colonist skills in forester, farming or mining are all good. All will give benefits, but no one far outweighs the others.

Assumption: You've learned the keys and controls to the game.

Before you start building, have a look around.

The most important things to have near you in order of importance are:
Trees
Crystals
Cotton
Stone
Iron

Apples are nice to have, but not mandatory (they do make it easier. But this guide will mean that even if the apples are on the other side of the island, you will be fine)

Once you've found a spot that has easy access to the resources, time to start building.

Right now we're just going to make a quick bunkhouse.

Pause the game.

Get building. Choose your walls. Now lets build just a simple square. 6 x 6. That will be more than enough to begin with. Don't forget a door and a floor.
Place 2 beds and 1 raw food basket.

Unpause.

Select your colonist that is going to be chopping wood at the beginning (Even if it's just short-term). Change the occupation to Forester and get them cutting trees.

Select the other colonist and get them building.

It won't take long. You'll get nagged to build a bonfire. Ignore that for now. Let's get a home for the colonists first and get your wood starting to come in.

Once the house is done (or nearly done) place the bonfire and 1 research stand in your house.

Click each colonist and right click a bed and assign. (Each bed can only have 1 owner).

You've now started the timer for the next colonist.

With the 'builder' gather some cotton from the nearest cotton fields. Build another bed for the incoming colonist.

Now we begin research in earnest. Click the science flask and select Farming.
Send your builder to start mining crystals. You'll need 5 to start with.

When new migrant arrives, accept them. Check their skills and abilities. The most important things to check for are "Overeater" "Bad Health" and "Allergies" (Allergies will be discussed in a separate section)

You do not need to have all 5 crystals to begin research. When the 3rd migrant arrives, put them straight to work researching. Keep mining those crystals til you have at least 5 total gathered.

When you are in a period of not sure what to do whilst waiting, check your colonists wishes. Any easy ones to fulfill? Do it. Remember, they only need to do a wish for an instant. If they want to relax, let them relax for 1 second. They get the mood boost and satisfaction points and you can send them straight back to work.

Keep that wood coming in!
If there are apple trees nearby, harvest them.

Finally Farming should be researched.

Pause game!

Build 20 tomato patches and 20 potato patches. Prioritize tomato first. As they can be planted straight away, but you'll have to wait before you can plant potatoes. (You should still be in Spring at this stage). I do them in 2 rows of 10. But do it how you feel. 20 Tomatos. Get them built. 20 potatoes, get them built.

Choose one of your colonists to be a farmer. Typically the doctor makes a good farmer at this stage of the game. The chance of injury is very very low, and having a healthy doctor is a good thing. Change occupation to "Farmer". Uncheck gather cotton and cooking for now. Right now your concern is planting those crops.

When all crops are planted, it is time to send your farmer to gather crystals.
You should now be going for woodworking. Any time a crop is ready to harvest, grab your farmer and get them harvesting and replanting crops.

When you have got woodworking, build your forester a wooden axe (don't forget to equip it on your forester).

Keep farming, and when not farming, gathering crystals.

Research writing.
By now it will be getting close to winter.

Depending on how you play you will have 3 or 4 colonists. Try not to go beyond 4 colonists if you can. You're still establishing your food supply.
Each colonist will eat approx 30 food throughout the no food gathering time. (Winter and early spring). So if you have 4 colonists and 120 food or more, congrats! You'll survive winter easily!

How about if things are close, but not quite there?
An option is to reduce their rations. Be aware that they will work slower when on low rations, but it will now be about 20 food per colonist.

A short section. Allergies sound really bad, but they are very easy to deal with.

1 Life satisfaction point will remove an allergy.

Do not dismiss a 1 star doctor with optimism+good health if they have an allergy.

You should be able to remove that allergy in a very short time by life satisfaction points.

If you get ridiculous wishes on the first day like "Kill tiki goblin" or "Have Payday" right at the beginning is the optimum time to deny the wish. Sure you get a -15 mood, but this is offset by the +17 mood for "New Colony"

Allergies are a mild inconvenience and should always be the first thing you remove from a colonist.

By this stage you should have plenty of food. And now it's time to hunker down.

What can you do?
Remember that research "Writing". Now is the time to put that to use.
Build a bookshelf.
A colonist can now learn new skills. Optimally, you will get your doctor to research medicine and get him/her up to 3 star ASAP.

Keep your forester cutting trees. Get your farmer cooking food.

If your farmer runs out of things to cook:
* Build another bookshelf and get the farmer levelling up.
* Mine Crystals
* Research Research Research

Before you know it, winter will be over, and your farmer will be very busy planting new crops, harvesting apples and gathering cotton. You should have food left over.