Whenever I find myself doing the same thing more than a couple of times a week, I hunt it up in the app's help file or through a Google search to find either a shortcut or a way to automate it. Word macros and Photoshop actions are great ways to automate. InDesign is trickier, because unless you can find a script already written for what you need to do, you have to write one. But I have to make a four-column text box about a dozen times a week, so investing a few minutes in writing the script was well worth it. Then assign a key command to the script. Half a second to place, size, and format. Gotta love it.