Absolute proper way to apply thermal paste?

I applied thermal paste to me laptop CPU and GPU using the dab and spread with heatsink technique, although my max temps are within good range, i think the speed at which my GPU and CPU cool down after a good solid hour of gaming could be faster. Upon exiting GTA 4 my GPU temp is 78 and my CPU temp is 74, both dropping to the lower 60's in a couple of seconds since the fan is at max and the CPU multiplier drops to Super LFM which is 600MHz, but these temps seem to stay in the 60's with the fan at a constant 2500RPM (level 2 of 7 in TPfancontrol) and it needs to be at complete idle for at least an hour before temps drop to a more normal level, after which idling for 1 night my GPU temp is 40 and my CPU temp is 35, pretty good, but is the improper application of thermal paste attributed to the speed of cooling?

Also, i slightly bent the heatpipe that leads from the GPU unfortunately when last applying thermal paste, i straightened it as much as i could but fear that this is contributing to the slower heat dissipation than used to be before.

 

Just make sure it's on the whole die but as thin as you can. (as much contact as possible)

No tips from me though. I'm spectacularly bad at this.

 

If your GPU takes long to cool down, make sure it isn't just a Powermizer downclocking bug in your current GPU Drivers. For example, if I use Drivers 186.82, my GPU, after a gaming session will hover around 60C for longer, then drop down to 50 and stay like that for ages.

However, if I use 186.81, my temps drop down to 40C and do so much quicker.

Regarding thermal paste application, the last time I did that, I used the line method and temps were fine, even better than stock.