[powatom]

The only reliably effective way to improve quality and reduce time is to practice. This does not mean, however, that you should burn yourself out. Apply common sense: don't do something that is making you hate doing it. Only do it when you can afford the time, and not at the expense of your sanity.

Aside from that, the only thing left to do is to minimise your unproductive working habits. The whole 'Vim is faster' thing is just a distraction - people can be 'fast' in a million and one different setups - the point is that if you pick a particular setup, you should learn how to use it. Learn the shortcuts and the tools available. This is just common sense. You don't learn to drive through trial and error - you know what each action you make is going to do before you do it. Read the manual.

Personally, I find that the best all-round way to improve my code quality and efficiency is to read for pleasure. Whether it's books or blogs, it doesn't really matter much to me. I find that when I have been reading, I can think more clearly about problems. I can spot ways to abstract problems far more easily, and I can express my ideas more coherently. Additionally, talking through a problem helps me a lot. Even if I am just explaining the problem to somebody who is not contributing anything to the solution - the mere act of being forced to provide an explanation can often highlight the solution far more quickly than if I had just sat in silence trying to figure it out.

For me, the workflow is about minimising unproductive habits rather than improving efficiency. The real test is how quickly you can identify the solution to a problem - the task of actually writing the code is something that is left to individual tastes and preferences. In all things - think first, act later :)