I like to think of it as "who are the siblings" and count from there. If your parent and their parent are siblings, you're first cousins. If your grandparent and their grandparent are siblings, you're second cousins. If your parent and their grandparent are siblings, you're first cousins (because someone's parent is a sibling) once removed (because the other is in a generation one off from that parent).
I'm not sure if that helps either, but with genealogy I've had a lot of practice.