I've been chatting with a friend a lot lately about how much more productive you can be by freeing yourself from the mouse.  So I figured I'd post just a few of the useful tips/tools that I use.

• I saw JP mention this tip first, but I'll repeat it here...unplug your mouse!  There is no better way to really learn all those keyboard shortcuts that you've always known were there, but never used.  Just try it for a day or two (or longer if needed).  You'll be surprised at how much faster you'll start to become at those tasks you used to always do with the mouse.
• Mouseless web browsing with the Hit-A-Hint Firefox extension.  You are using Firefox, right?!?  This lets you easily click links and set focus to text boxes by simply hitting the space bar and typing the number shown by the page element.  In rare cases, it won't be exactly obvious which numbers go to which element because of the page's html/css funkiness.  But fo the most part it works great!
• Search with ease using the SearchKeys Firefox extension.  This takes the Hit-A-Hint technique to a whole new level for most search pages (i.e. Google, Yahoo, etc.).  It automatically puts numbers beside each search result, eliminating the need to hit the space bar first.  Just type the number shown and you're on your way.
• For some reason, this one took a while for me to find.  A way to customize keyboard shortcuts for Firefox.  Well the answer I just found was the very useful KeyConfig Firefox extension.  I needed this simply because I wanted to map my "Close Current Tab" command to the same thing I map it to in Visual Studio, Ctrl-`.  Ctrl-F4 and Ctrl-W both just seem akward to me.
• Ok, this is the last Firefox related tool I'll post for now (though I use a whole lot more).  If you use GMail, you simply have to install this GMail Macros Script giving you full power over GMail from the keyboard.  But first you'll need to download the Greasemonkey Firefox extension which is awesome, but that's for another post.
• Of course apps like SlickRun & ReSharper are essential (IMHO), but those are covered numerous other places, so I won't bother going into detail on those in this post.
• If you really wanna get crazy, check out Mouser!  This lets you move your mouse with your keyboard for those certain situations where keyboard shortcuts won't do what you need.

Once you start finding your own style with this stuff, you'll start to realize things like [WIN+Q g nhibernate] is just *supposed* to fire open a SlickRun box and search google for NHibernate.  And that [Alt-R-N-C] in Visual Studio (with R#) is how new classes *should* be created in a project.  And you just *know* that [Alt-F-S > Alt-Tab > Up > Enter] saves the current code file in Visual Studio, switches to your VS Command Prompt and runs "build test" to run your unit tests.  But anyways...  ;)

And if you're wondering about my current keyboard of choice, it's the Razer Tarantula.  I picked this up about 6 months ago and love it.  Like Dustin, I carry it everywhere with me.  As you can see I've haven't yet drank the ergonomic kool-aid.  :)

And of course I had to get the matching mouse, the Razer Copperhead (in Tempest Blue to match), for those times when I do use a mouse.  Like the rare opportunities I have for gaming, for which, this mouse rocks!  2000 DPI and 1000 HZ, oh yeah!

Happy Mouseless Computing!