Don't: complain about the XP / voting system or the personality of other monks. You'll probably gain negative XP.

Easy: Log in daily. Vote when you can.

Harder: write useful responses to Seekers of Perl Wisdom questions / ask interesting questions.

Hardest: write an interesting meditation.

The harder options can also give you the quickest rise in XP if you do it right :-) In short: be interesting / helpful and respect the other monks and the XP will come.