For many people, a key to a productive session at the computer is a clean and organized desktop. This forum post from the The Linux Action Show Forums by hammerandbank has some great GNOME specific tips. Among my favorites:

Take all your menus, shortcuts, clock, and backround apps and move them onto one panel. If you don’t use the icon everytime your on the computer, you don’t need it on the panel.

Set Deskbar to an easy keybourd shortcut under deskbar preferences. I used super(window) and enter
Remove all icons and menus from the desktop. Search everything

Looks like many of the concepts can be extended into KDE as well.

Unclutter your desktop (best tips for making use of your screen)