I kind of have some knowledge, but you should post something about 'clipping masks'--although not everyone uses it, but if you're super nit picky, it is a life saver.
Also, actions are incredible--you can easily set them up on your F2-F12 keys, so you never ever have to keep dragging your mouse over to certain tasks over and over again. Here's a tutorial that explains it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRhaXXVnhAQSince I see a lot of work here that starts off with flat colors, I bet many of you always use the 'select>expand>2px' thing all the time, or maybe 'flatten>dpi=2' or even 'edit>transform> rotate 90 degree'--with action keys, you can make simple things like that set up to a hotkey. Saves your hands some sanity and time. (just watch the video for better explanation) not in the video: If you want an action set to a hotkey, there's an option called 'function key' when you press the record button.
*note: this tutorial also leads to the 'batch' function, which is also the magical time saver. The Batch function allows you to set the same 'action' to a fat wad of files in a folder.