You attended one of those ThunderLizard Photoshop workshops, and as usual you can away more confused, and with more questions than you had before you went. It's impossible to think you can get it all at those conferences. In fact, they count on that.
Graphic designers are very keyboard focused when they are working at the computer.
Using menus for commands is too slow and interrupts the creative flow of their work. Keystrokes also offer a control and degree of precision not afforded by the mouse when positioning, copying, or drawing objects. The major graphic design programs have hundreds upon hundreds of keyboard shortcuts, many of which are not well documented and instead spread through the community like rumors. This book shows you every keyboard shortcut in existence, how each works, and how to get more power out of it. You can easily flip to the task you want to complete and find the shortcut to maximize your time at the computer.