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I'm a behaviorist by trade, and plan to use similar strategies with DD, when it comes to discipline. Like @BAO mentioned, I will probably just use prompting and redirection when she's younger.

Once she's able to comprehend, I would love to start a simple sort of token economy/visual reinforcement system so she's able to track her own behaviors, and see when she's earned or lost privileges.

Personally, I think children thrive on attention, regardless of whether it's positive or negative. I believe in praising desirable behavior, and ignoring negative behavior. As long as my child, and those around her are safe, I don't plan to discipline temper tantrums with my attention. Instead, I will withhold eye contact and communication until they've gotten it together. If they need to be removed from the environment (i.e. take them out of the grocery store, and to the car seat), and it's feasible, I plan to do so quietly. In my experience, kids eventually learn that mom is not giving in, and they're not getting what they want from pitching a fit. Usually, you see a decrease pretty fast, especially if they're losing access to privileges *and* attention.

Oh, I'm also totally for a time-out chair (just not in their room, where there are toys and entertainment). They seem to work pretty well!

We use gentle parenting techniques. I would recommend the book Positive Discipline for Infants to Toddlers. We also use techniques from Dr. Sears' Discipline Book, the No Cry Discipline Solution, Love and Logic, and a couple Montessori books.

The only offenses we use traditional time outs for are violence (hitting, kicking, etc...) and repeatedly disobeying in a way that may be dangerous (e.g. slamming the door after mom and dad say to stop). Right now we still use a lot of redirection and distraction, even with DD, who is almost 3. We use a lot of positive reinforcement and try to be proactive so we don't get into bad habits. We also talk a lot about our feelings, what it means to be respectful, how our behaviors affect others, etc... we just try to make parenting decisions based on what will be long-term beneficial rather than what resolves the behavior most quickly. Both kids (even DS, who's 14 months) also get logical consequences for their actions. Misuing an item in a way that is dangerous or not respecting the item (e.g. tearing books purposefully or not cleaning up toys after playing with them) gets that item taken away and has to be earned back. (DD is currently eating her oatmeal without any silverware because she refused to put her spoons and forks back into the drawer last night after playing with them. It's actually pretty funny, lol.) We're trying to give the kids the tools to eventually make good decisions on their own, so they're always allowed to question us on why we made certain choices (and DD questions why a lot right now, lol!).

Truthfully, parenting has been a constantly evolving thing for us. Ignoring tantrums worked great when DD was around a year; now that she's older we have more success with talking through tantrums. There is always a new challenge to address, and sometimes behaviors we had corrected months ago come back in full force. It's always something new.

@deerylou: I agree with most of what you said.

Redirection when they are little and then loss of privileges and time outs when they are older.

I have had the chance to practice discipline techniques on a variety of kids and to watch different parents handle a ton of different situations. Here are a few of my favorite tactics:

Redirection-- I use this even with older kids, it is the biggest staple for me because often when kids are misbehaving it is because they are hungry, tired or bored. I love the "magic wand" technique for when they desperately want something, they demand a toy when we are picking out a birthday gift and I counter with "we are just here to get a gift for X but if I had a magic wand I would definitely get that for you, I would also get you that giant stuffed bear and every single book on the bookshelf, what else would you get?" and we turn it into a silly game. This is still going strong with 9 year olds, often they just want to be heard.

Badgering/Grumpy behavior-- this sounds sort of mean but I promise I don't handle it in a mean way-- but they run. If it is raining they do laps around the house or run stairs if they are old enough, if it is nice out they do laps around the yard or up and down the block. I don't think I have ever had this not result in a much happier child.

Time out-- this is usually limited to direct disobedience and repeated inability to get along with others. Don't dump your cereal on the floor followed by an upended bowl will land them on the bottom step for a few minutes. Screeching at your sister, pestering me about wanting a different snack and refusing to do your homework means you are doing your homework in your room (with carrots if I think they are truly hungry.) Most of the time with time outs I limit it to one minute per year of life or until you can pull yourself together, whichever comes first. If they are still a mess after that time it usually becomes time-in and I will sit with them and help them calm down.

Time-in-- I use this a lot when it is clear that misbehavior comes from feelings instead of tired/hungry/bored. Finding out mom won't be home in time for bedtime and then having an outburst is different in my mind then just being a grump.

I spend a LOT of time preventing misbehavior (but I don't walk around nagging). I offer or remind them to get a snack when the are seeming hungry, offer a job or remind them of something they wanted to do when they seem bored, we do random story times/silent reading when they are looking tired and I make sure they know exactly what is on the docket for the day and give them warning for transitions. These things are second nature at this point but it makes a world of difference in how our days go.

I am relatively strict but on the flip side I am very clear about what I expect so I have never had an issue. I actually let kids do a lot of things that their parents might not but they are expected to treat those things responsibly or they lose the privilege. I think offering kids that responsibility and showing them I trust them goes a long way.

I think ultimately having a large bag of tricks is your best bet. Try reading Playful Parenting and How to Talk so Kids will Listen for some more ideas.

@Cole: Playful Parenting is up next on my reading list! I think you and I have pretty similar disciplinary styles.

@Cole: I LOVE the idea of running. I'm totally going to start that once LO is a little older
You also reminded me about the redirection/validation of feelings thing that Mr. Bee posted about once (I think Charlie wanted a cupcake at the grocery store and instead of saying no, Mr. Bee had a whole conversation with him about cupcakes and how awesome they are and what kind of cupcakes they'd like). We do this with LO all the time and it works great, and I'd never have thought of this on my own. I guess I don't think of it as "discipline" because it's not usually in response to misbehavior, but we use this all the time to kind of head off LO getting upset.

I used redirection until 2.5 years then hitting became a problem so I started giving timeouts for 2 minutes. After a timeout, I get on his level, explain what he did wrong, ask for an apology and hug him. We talk about what he is feeling and how he can convey those emotions. Also, I learned that story telling + asking him to problem solve REALLY helps (thanks, Mrs. Jacks!). When all of that is done, sometimes I have to take away privileges and toys. If the bad behavior continues, he usually needs a healthy snack and a nap. Also, if he does something like he won't share, we give him 3 warnings for a timeout. If he throws his toys or hits, it's an instant timeout and usually around 5 minutes.
Very rarely have we given spankings (mostly when he's been in danger and he really did not understand how his actions were wrong).

@HLK208: We count down in seconds because my son wouldn't know how long a minute is, too! If it's something he's really into, we'll say 60 seconds. Otherwise it's 30 seconds. Sometimes he bargains with us. We'll say "Ok 30 seconds!" and he says "No! 60 seconds". We'll say "Ok 40 seconds! But that's it". I think it's ok to bargain sometimes because it teaches how to compromise and meet halfway. But I know some moms wouldn't tolerate bargaining from their 3 year olds. lol. If we're in public, I'll start the countdown "Ok.. ready? 60, 59, 58, 57,.." to give it a running start and then start up again when it's 10 more seconds so that I"m not sitting there counting the whole time.