I used the wind up method before trying the wind down method. Then if I hadn't flown for a while I'd forget which one I used.
Now what I do has made it much simpler to understand.
1. Draw out a dummy triangle of velocities on a piece of paper. You will have to remember how the heading is affected by wind to produce the track. Make sure you use the standard 1,2 & 3 arrows to indicate each vector.
Then if you know the track (usually) then dot in the centre of the E6B is between the wind and the track vector.
I make sure I draw all of the vectors on the E6B so that it looks as if it makes sense.
Then as you have the full triangle you can see how everything is related and easily read off headings/groundspeeds etc.
As Hannibal of the A-Team said "Works for me".