Keyboard shortcuts can definitely improve your productivity. But first you have to learn them... What do you do to become shortcut-master?
Do you just try to remember?
Use a tool similar to KeyTraino?
Have a .txt file with shortcuts you're trying to learn?
Have a ton of posters with shortcuts hanging on a wall?
How is that working for you? Does it interrupt your "flow" in any way?
Look em up online and then remember. If they're really useful then you will remember them.
I usually track myself performing an operation a lot, and check if there's some kind of configuration for it. This usually ends up in defining a keyboard shortcut.
I even optimize some of my keyboard shortcuts. For example, I use the z and x keys (on QWERTY) instead of ALT-left/right to move backward and forward in my browser's history, respectively.
Go (really) old-school - and unplug the mouse: it interrupts the flow for a while, but increases the motivation to learn/remember the shortcuts. Having a cheat sheet in some form handy helps ;)
Like strager, I usually look for the shortcut that does what I need.
If it exists, I force myself into using it each time I am to perform the action it is associated to, and then it becomes a reflex.
In that case, I often bookmark the help page where the shortcuts are listed to keep it handy.
Sometimes, the shortcut does not exist and I have to create it. Using a sequence of keys that makes sense helps, as next time you'll need it, you will probably think of the same sequence.
When keyboard shortcuts are part of your "flow", they can indeed be productive, but in many instances, keyboard shortcuts are overrated. Before you burn me as a heretic, let me explain: studies have shown that people can actually experience temporary amnesia and forget the time they spent remembering the shortcut. The task of remembering the shortcut, although it makes you feel "productive", can actually distract you from whatever you are doing.
Suspend your faiths for a bit and read this article: Tog on Interface: Keyboard vs. The Mouse, pt 1 (It's by Bruce Tognazzini.) He says:
I have doubts about how widely applicable the conclusions of the study are, but it's worth thinking about.
If you do a task sufficiently often, you will start using its shortcut, and if you've used a shortcut sufficiently often, you will remember it. (I can tell you; I'm an Emacs user who keeps hitting Emacs shortcuts in places they don't work.) If you don't, you're not doing the thing sufficiently often and it's not worth memorizing its shortcut.
If the application that you're using shows shortcuts in the menu, take note of the one for a menu command that you use a lot and try to use it instead of the menu whenever you want to do that command.
If you're a fan of toolbars, and thare's a setting to show the shortcuts in the tooltips, turn it on, and take note of the shortcut for a button that you click often and try to use it instead of the button.
If you learn shortcuts one or two at a time, chances are, you'll be able to retain more of them than if you try to learn a whole bunch at once.
Just do it one function at a time! It must become part of your flow, if you are looking up the information in a cheat sheet, then you are wasting your time and missing the point.
You only need to learn these the keyboard shortcuts for the operations you do a lot, and in those cases it does not take learning you just get it with repetition.
The more you do this, the quicker you find out that keyboard short cuts are like UI design they all tend to follow the same pattern, and it does not take long before you can assume the keyboard shortcuts and be correct.
Despite the questionable study quoted by @Dan, if you need inspiration, just watch a keyboard user and someone who is not, the key difference is not really speed, it is the time spent context switching between the task at hand and getting where you need to go or doing what you need to do.
I have a personality that gets really irritated when I know "there has to be an easier way". So when I reach the boiling point, I look up the keys, and then I remember them.
This is what you should do to learn the shortcuts and become a "shortcut master". It will take a few hours but it will be time that will pay off for itself many times over.
First make up a spreadsheet with three columns: Category, Shortcut, and Description. A spreadsheet is important because it will allow you to sort and move items around easily.
Go through all menu items of your program and for any items that have shortcuts listed beside them, add them to your list. If you can't think of a category, use the name of the file menu.
Then do the same for all the toolbar items. Most programs show the shortcut when you hover over the toolbar icons. If you can't think of a category, use the name of the toolbar group (get it from Customize toolbars).
Now go to Google and look up "keyboard shortcuts yourlanguage". You'll find lots of pages with organized lists of shortcuts amd miscellaneous hard to find but useful ones.
MANUALLY add these to your list. It is important that you do this and do not use another list you find. It is only through the physical act of copying and thinking about each shortcut that your mind will remember that it exists. If you are not aware of a shortcut, you will never think of using it and it won't help you.
Once your list is as complete as you can get it, now try out each shortcut once. You may be surprised at how many of them that you didn't know about are useful to you,
Either print out or keep the spreadsheet available as a shortcut you can easily access for reference. You will find you'll need it quite a bit at first, but you'll quickly start to remember the keys you use most often.
Whenever you encounter a new list of shortcuts someone's made, go through it. Any that don't sound familiar may be shortcuts you didn't know about or shortcuts you forgot about. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the ones that were not familiar to you.
Not very difficult. It's a basic studying technique that works.
Buy a "Keyboard Shortcut Training" mouse like the one included in the Logitech MX 5000 set! Often times it will go out of sync and refuse to come back or prematurely run out of batteries.
Windows Tips:
1) Learn the close window shortcut:
[ALT]+[SPACE]+C - Close Current Window (Use Right Three Fingers of Left Hand)
2) Install Launchy and AutoHotKey. Identify and automate routine tasks with AutoHotKey. Map new AutoHotKey scripts to two letter commands in Launchy.
Pair programming, especially Promiscuous Pairing works well for learning new, useful techniques that are relevant to the work at hand. The Promiscuous Pairing article has an anecdote where someone accidentally discovers that Ctrl-Shift-V in Visual Studio activates the keyboard ring. By the end of the day, all 11 team members have learned it.