Humans are such creatures of habit. Forever and a day I've been taking the "long way" to renaming layers in Photoshop. Why does one rename layers? Well...for starters...to help you remember a little more about either what action you performed on that layer...or what creative affect you applied on that layer. Too often we start out with just a duplicate layer and when we go back to a project and see a layer called "duplicate layer" it can be a challenge to quickly determine what you did on that layer.

There are multiple ways to rename layers...you can right click the layer on the layer palette and select properties, you can right click on the actual image and select properties to rename the layer (the active layer will be selected)...OR...and I just discovered this little short-cut...if you can click directly on the layer description in the layer palette...and you can edit / rename directly -- a small but significant time saver in my book! :)