A large part of the world of stationery is graphic design. I spend a large portion of my day in Adobe Illustrator. I know my tools fairly well.

Then I watch people like Aaron Draplin work and am floored by the efficiency of some designers. I know the key to that efficiency, but gaining those skills is something totally different. The key to that level of Illustrator-fu is keyboard shortcuts.

Aaron Draplin Takes On a Logo Design Challenge from lynda.com on Vimeo.

There was a time where I tried to learn and use a new one each day. I’ve long since fallen out of that practice, but I think I’ll start again.

This tool from Fastprint gives you contextual layouts of all of Adobe’s keyboard shortcuts for the three main design applications (Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop). It’s an incredible reference that I’ve kept open in my browser for the last week.

If you want to quickly improve your efficiency as a designer, check out these shortcuts and make it a practice to learn a new one at least once a week.