Ten After Effects workflow habits that shave an hour off every project

Speed in After Effects rarely comes from a faster machine. It comes from removing decisions you have already made once.

Name comps as you create them, with the delivery in the name. Pre-compose to isolate, not to hide. Keep one adjustment layer per purpose — grade, grain, vignette — so a client note changes one layer instead of eight.

Work on proxies for anything above 4K, and switch back only for the final render. Set the resolution and quality presets you actually use as workspace defaults so you stop clicking through menus.

Save selection-based utilities to a shortcut board: rename layers in sequence, sequence layers by a fixed offset, align to comp centre, toggle guides, split at playhead. Individually each saves seconds; across a project it is a working hour.

Reuse aggressively. Yesterday's lower third is today's preset. Yesterday's expression rig is today's template. The projects that take longest are the ones that start from an empty comp for no reason.

Ghostae Tools collects around 34 of these utilities in one shortcut board, plus autosave and project notes, so the routine parts stay one click away.