Keyboard shortcuts: Work an 8-hour day in 45 minutes

Ok, I have to admit, this article took me 13.7 seconds to write. That's because of the power of keyboard shortcuts, people!

You've had 2 – 10 fingers in contact with your keyboard 5 out of 8 hours for most of your professional life. Don't you think they would appreciate a bit of a break? How about at least a few tricks? That's what this article is about.

Let's get something straight: Your keyboard is your friend, your mouse is your enemy. Every time you lift your hand and reposition it on your mouse you've wasted valuable time. Over a productive career I'd estimate using your mouse will waste 3-4 months. That's lost vacation time! Reclaim your life now! Keep reading.

Alt-Tab. This is the single biggest performance gain you will experience this month.¹ Alt-Tab allows you to switch rapidly among applications. Hold down Alt and keep pressing Tab to cycle through apps. You'll see this type of image on your screen:

Let go of Alt on the application you want and presto! You're now in that app.

Alt-F4. OK, who uses F4? Seriously, what's up with that under-utilized row of keys at the top of your keyboard? A whole row? Can you see the dust? All right, so Alt-F4 allows you to close an application. It's an awkward hand movement but, then again, if we were meant to use a mouse, they could have come up with a better name than mouse, right?
Control-Tab. If you are in a tabbed environment (not Excel), use Control-Tab to jump to the next tab. Nice and easy.
Control-Shift-Tab. Jump a tab back. You're getting the hang of this, aren't you?
Control-X. "X" is for "eXtract," which stands for "cut" as in, "I don't want this text here any more but I don't want to get rid of it." I see you eyeing that cute little scissors icon at the top of your screen. Ignore it! Use Control-X to cut text. Always.
Contol-V. "V" is for "Vrrroom," which stands for "paste" as in, "Where did my cut text go?" Use Control-V to put the text you cut where you want it.
Control-C. "C" is for "copy" as in, "This sentence I just wrote is so good I'm going to copy it to every document I have open." Use Control-C to duplicate text.

The three commands above require the text you want to manipulate to be highlighted. Ah, I see you reaching for that mouse again. No! Mouse = bad, keyboard = good.

Shift-Arrow Keys. The Shift key is used for selection. Arrow keys are used for navigation. Put them together and you get a powerful keyboard selection tool. But wait, there's more! Shift combined with left or right arrow only allows one letter to be selected at a time. We can do better than that.
Control-Shift-Arrow Keys. “Control” jumps words. Put your cursor at the start of a long word like heteroskedasticity. Now press Control-Right-Arrow. Ta-da, you're at the end of the word. Add in the Shift key and now you can select it. Magic.
Shift-Home/End. What good is a word at a time when you can select a whole line? As a bonus use just the Home key to go to the start of the line and the End key to go to the...end. This will speed your navigation skills while your cursor jumps around your document with the greatest of ease.
Control-Delete. Again, Control is used for full words. Naturally, Control-Delete allows you to delete the word after the cursor.
Control-Backspace. Use this key combo to delete the word before the cursor.
Control-Z. "Z" as in, "Zoinks I didn't mean to do that, Undo!" Yes, Control-Z will get you out of a bind by undoing what you last did. Keep pressing to keep undoing. No, you can't un-send that e-mail. Good try.
Control-Y. Use this combo when you want to redo what you undid. The opposite of Control-Z.
Control-F. "F" for "find" as in, "Where did I use the word ‘find’ in this post?"
Control-A. "A" for all" as in, "I want to select this whole document so I can delete it and start over."
Control-B. "B" as in "bold" as in, "Look here, this is important." Select your text and Control-B it.
Control-I. "I" as in "italics" as in, "I like to emphasize certain things." Again, select and italicize away.
Control-U. "U" as in "underline" as in, "I already used bold and this is different."

Most of the same shortcuts are available on the Mac but you use the Apple key instead. Give it a try. You aren't left out in the cold in the world of efficiency. Who said you can't get serious work done on a Mac?

So there you have it: over a dozen-and-a-half keyboard shortcuts that will improve your efficiency. You don't have to memorize them all. Select a group of oft-used commands and get those down pat. Add a new shortcut every few days and soon you'll be busting out keyboard combos like Control-Shift-Left-Arrow-Control-B with the utmost of ease.

If you have other shortcuts that you use every day, please share. We can combat wasted time and the tyranny of the mouse together!

¹Better performance than that enhancement drug you've been contemplating. Trust me.