Why you should learn how to use keyboard shortcuts

Do you ever find yourself doing a repetitive task and wonder – Is there a better way to do this? By learning a few handy keyboard shortcuts, you can incrementally save yourself a lot of time (and frustration).

I think most people would be familiar with the command/ctrl + c (copy) and command/ctrl + v (paste). It can be an arduous task without using the shortcut keys. For example, you’ve got to move your cursor all the way up to the top of the screen, go to the edit dropdown menu, hit copy and then move the pointer to where you want to paste it… and then move that cursor once again up to the top… and hit edit again… You get the idea. To be fair, I’ve seen people do it pretty quickly on a touch pad, but it still makes me cringe.

Moreover, there are often repetitive tasks that need to be tackled when I use design software. For instance, pasting without formatting, checking keyframe positions and adjusting audio gain levels are all keyboard shortcuts I use daily. I’d really struggle if I didn’t have a keyboard, in fact, I wouldn’t know where to find half the functions in the interface that are shortcuts with a keystroke.

As a result of memorising a few simple shortcuts, I can accumulate time throughout the day that can be better served elsewhere. As Bill Gates once said, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

So have a think about a repetitive task that drives you up the wall and see if you can find the shortcut on your keyboard. Or even try out command + c (copy) / command + v (paste) if you haven’t already.