My current stack of optimizations:

Keyboard layout: NEO 2.0 - optimized for German. Maybe someone feels like putting together a engl. version. It has some added niceness besides the arrangement of the letters. For engl. users Colemak seems best.

Using as much monitor space as can fit on the desk. 24" monitors are affordable now. I use a few of them. For traveling I have a underpowered netbook, that is lightweight and still fine.

To use multiple computers on the same desk check out synergy. It is just awesome.

All my computers run f.lux, which dims them down at nighttime. No idea if it is actually useful, but it seems nice.

Setting up synchronization between computers might take a while, but is worth it. I use Dropbox + some Truecrypt. Other tools might be great too.

In general: automate tasks that are simple and repetitious.