I know it sounds counter-intuitive, especially coming from a design firm, but it’s actually really great advice. I’ve recently picked up the book “Rework,” written by the founders of 37signals (creators of Basecamp, an online project collaboration tool we use) and they talk about ignoring the details early on.

They draw a comparison to architects, who don’t worry about what tiles to use in the bathroom or which dishwasher to install until after the floor plan is finished. They go on to say “Nail the basics first and worry about the specifics later.”

If I find myself using the Photoshop menu to access an action repeatedly, I’ll take a few extra seconds and assign a keyboard shortcut for that action. Some of you may already know how to do this, but don’t feel bad if you don’t.

For this example, I’ll set up a keyboard shortcut for Image > Trim. I use trim a lot when exporting web graphics to crop the canvas to the exact size of the graphic (basically just removing all the transparent pixels).

In Photoshop, click Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (it’s towards the bottom).