It just occured to me that up this point I never mentioned a tool which has become essential for my daily work: Synergy. So, what is Synergy? To quote from the website:

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all.

I have my notebook set up so that it connects to both my home and my work pc via synergy (depending on where I am of course) and therefore allows me to use it without having to switch input devices. A bit like a dual monitor setup, just with one of the monitors being portable and bringing a lot of preinstalled tools ;) Quite handy. This just as a quick recommendation to you