This may sound obvious, but typing is a lot faster than navigating with the mouse. Whenever possible you should be using hotkeys. You will become faster at doing everything on a computer. If you find yourself doing something over and over again, find a way to make it faster. Get in the habit of automating these repetitive tasks.
Cmd+tabflips between running programs, in order of last used.Cmd+~flips between open windows of a running program.Cmd+spaceopens a search bar for finding anything: app, file, etc.Cmd+,open the preferences/settings of the active program.