Batch processing and Actions are one of those unsung heros in PS (and, I'm sure in other programs as well).
I like making my own shortcuts this way too. If you use crop on a regular basis, you can make it an action and then set a shortcut key instead of always going to the menu. You can do this with any menu command (blur, sharpen, resize, rotate, etc.)
I used to work in a copy shop and people would come in with disks full of images (200 or more...seriously) and want one copy of each. A quick automated action to open, resize, and print and I was off to a coffee break.
If anyone doesn't know what these are and they're processing more than five images at a time, I'd definitely recommend learning about it.