Admittedly, it is much easier to click on the Windows Explorer icon in my task bar and navigate to a folder to click on the file I want rather than having to navigate there using a command line interface. But, there are times where I am furiously typing away on the keyboard crafting some gem of poetic wisdom and removing one of my hands from the keyboard in order to point-and-click with the mouse is counter-productive.

I make the most frequent like cut (Ctrl-Z) and paste (Ctrl-V), but there are tons to choose from. Many of them work only in certain contexts, like general keyboard shortcuts, and keyboard shortcuts for the taskbar, and keyboard shortcuts for Windows Explorer. Click to expand the table and see a few of my favorites.

The brief list of shortcuts in the accompanying table barely scratches the surface, though. In order to use the keyboard shortcuts, you first need to memorize the keyboard shortcuts. Getting through that initial learning curve may actually be slower than the comparable mouse clicking-and-pointing, but if you invest the effort it will pay dividends forever.

Imagine you are editing a document draft and decide that you want to move a paragraph up to an earlier section of the page. You can do one of the following: A) Stop typing and use the mouse to select the paragraph of text by holding the left mouse button down while dragging across the selected text. Then, right click the selected text and click Cut, followed by placing the mouse pointer where you want the text to go, right-clicking and selecting Paste. Or, B) Hold down Ctrl-Shift and an arrow key to select the paragraph, followed by Ctrl-X to cut it. Then use the arrow keys to move the cursor to where you want the text to go and press Ctrl-V to paste the text.

The second scenario saves a few seconds and enables you to keep your productivity momentum going by never removing your hands from the keyboard or shifting your focus from the task at hand. Microsoft provides a you can use to .