Every time you lift your hand off the keyboard and reach for your mouse, you're wasting time.

Not only are key combos faster to hit, but they're also more accurate when it comes to precise actions like highlighting text or selecting cells in a spreadsheet. Once you learn basic keyboard shortcuts, you will be able to complete a lot more work than you used to, leaving extra time to do the important things, such as playing with the kids.

1. Efficiency

You can increase your productivity and accomplish more tasks by using the keyboard instead of mouse, meaning it’s easier and gets your job done faster. Take for example the task of selecting all the text in a document. You can do that by simply pressing Ctrl+A while doing that with the mouse requires pressing the left mouse button and dragging it across the whole document.

2. Multitasking

When you use the keyboard you don’t have to follow a pointer to see what you are doing and you can do thing semi-automatically thus freeing your mind to focus on other tasks.

3. Complementarity

You can combine the advantages of using the keyboard with those of using the mouse. There are tasks that are much easier done with the mouse, take the example of browsing the web pages and clicking links but at the same time you can use the keyboard to navigate within the page or between tabs.

4. Health Issues

Extensive mouse usage is associated with RSI (Repetitive Syndrome Injury) much often than the keyboard usage. By alternating mouse and keyboard usage you can reduce the risks of RSI.

5. Precision

When you have a job that requires precision it is advisable that you use the keyboard, for example if you do a lot of text editing, it is more accurate to handle it through shortcut keys.

Keyboard Shortcuts + Why you should use them