The best way is to change something so the cat doesn't wanna be there in the first place.

I used a motion activated can of pressured air to scare him off the counter, changing its position so different parts of the counter were covered at different times. That, plus instantly pushing him off the counter whenever I got the chance.

He stopped hopping up there after just a few weeks of this, and I haven't had to use the pressured air can since.

I did something similar with his habit of shredding the toilet paper. I set a metal measuring cup on the tp, so that whenever he'd go to unroll it the metal cup would loudly clang onto the tile floor. Had to manually reset the cup each time, but it took him less than a week to get the point.

Cat's do problem solving very quickly (at least mine does), but I don't think they see us people as a problem that needs solving. People like to joke that cats teach their owners to do more tricks than the other way around, and it's true, I know exactly what ques mean pet me, play with me, swap my water, feed me, etc.

But if you change the environment so that it teaches the thing you want the cat to learn, it's insane how quickly their behaviour changes.

I imagine the counter training wouldn't have worked nearly as well if it was just me spraying canned air, rather than a consistent automatic device with no clear person operating it.