I usually do something in the middle of Edmonds and Toynbee - an Alex Maneuver.
It consists of the following steps:
1) Relax all muscles and breath in well, hard to do it without much air
2) Bring the tongue as much into a throat as possible, if feels like it is folding into a Z of sorts
3) While stiffening the tongue and moving it forward towards the teeth by pushing against top of the soft palate, I do a big swallow, a mother of all swallows
4) Somewhere in the middle of the swallow, the lower jaw travels down to the extreme (stretches the tubes), just don't lose a regulator
It has to be timed right. But for me it works the best. I also like the fact that it can be done with no assistance from the hands. Make sure you don't have any mucus in your throat or it is hard to do a swallow properly. Also, if you have a dry throat, also hard to do it fast enough for an effect. When doing during the initial first dive decent, works wonders. No bleeding nose after the dive (from overblowing).
If I surface and have to do down again within minutes, I often have a single random ear blockage. To avoid that, I really have to clear my throat and nose well from mucus before the attempt, which is a bit awkward when you are with a buddy, since it is not particular dignified or accepted socially.
After a few days on a liveaboard, this becomes a second nature, something that you do without much thought or effort put into it. I seen some people drop down like stones, I guess they have something better than this... I am still being cautious and decent normally. I guess most free divers would decent like a stone, maybe they have more practice or physiological superiority in the tubes' diameter...
Valsalva doesn't work well with me. While it does, it requires some effort and, maybe I have weaker soft tissue in the nose, I bleed somewhat post dive. And bloody snot is not particular appealing to the one who is doing and to the people around such a spectacle. Therefore, I quit blowing into my nose totally. I tried being more gentle but then it won't work, so I add pressure until it works, and voila, red stuff post dive.
One weird oddity I found, when I put my mask into the common bucket with some soap, after some time during the dive, the soapy taste travels down my nose into my throat, making it rather a discussing experience for a while, like I ate soap. Thus, from this, I gather that some minimal water can travel back and forth between my nose and my throat. Based on this, I would think that having open wounds (like a bloody nose) is a recipe to get an infection, especially in fresh waters. Thus, find what works for you without abusing your body to the point that it bleeds.
Yet the BIGGEST help I found is to equalize right before the dive. Don't have to do much or strongly. Then the initial ear "squeeze" is delayed greatly. This allows you to remember and do another equalization before too late and the squeeze starts to demand you do it.