Decrease the time spent using the Start menu
At first use, the Windows Vista (and now Windows 7) Start menus are a bit odd. I thought it was short-sighted of Microsoft to make the menu so small and require scrolling, but what it did was force me to use the search feature. Just type the name (or even part of the name) of the program you'd like to launch and press enter. That's it, you've launched the program. You may think that it's a small thing, but when you're constantly opening new applications it gets to be quite the time save.
On to the point of this article, Launchy. Launchy takes the search capability a step further by not requiring you to use a mouse. Again, another seemingly small task to move your hand to your mouse and click the Start button, but when your hands are typically on the keyboard it's another bit of saved time. 
Simply press Alt+Spacebar and you have access to the Launchy window.
Type in the name of the application you'd like to launch and hit enter. If there are applications you typically use, you can alter the configuration to only have to type in a certain key command to launch that application.
Another perk of having Launchy is the ability to completely clear your desktop. You no longer need shortcuts!