2 of the most common ways of reducing your tax bill are of course deductions and credits.
Tax credits reduce the amount of your tax. However they don’t affect what bracket you’re in.
But the tax deductions reduce how much of the income you make is subject to taxes. For the most part the deductions lower your taxable income simply by the percentage of your highest federal income tax bracket.
In simpler words, take and use all the deductions you can because they can reduce your taxable income and they can kick you to a lower bracket, which for you means that you will be able to pay a lower tax rate.