Summary
I hope that you can benefit from a few or all of these best practices, tips and tricks, and keyboard shortcuts for layers. Learning to use layers in Illustrator can be a bit of work in the beginning, but with time layers will make your life easier, allowing you to work more efficiently.
Brian Wood is a seasoned web developer and web/print technology trainer. An Adobe Certified Instructor in Acrobat 9 Pro, Illustrator CS4, Dreamweaver CS4, InDesign CS3, and Photoshop CS3, Brian has authored several training books, including Adobe InDesign CS2 Hands-On-Training, Adobe Illustrator CS5 Classroom in a Book, and others, all published by Peachpit Press. He has also authored online training videos for Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, Expression Web, and other products.
Brian provides corporate training to companies nationwide, and is an active developer. He co-owns AskBrianWood.com and BrianWoodTraining.com, and has a free training video blog at BrianWoodTips.com.