If not for this thread who knows when I would have found out about taking care of individual needs with the click of a mouse button lol.
And here I've already been using similar shortcuts the game supplies.
Like the house icon on the sim's picture, at the bottom of the screen, that instructs the sim to go home when he's on another lot or just away from the house, collecting items or chatting with sims. Really helps when I don't know the way back to the house lol! In the career tab, all you have to do is click the job icon to instruct him to go to work (when it's time to go to work, that is). The career tab turns yellow when it's time for work.
Also, what I discovered late is the way the career tab shows you exactly how many hours are left before the sim's next shift, whether it be hours till then, or days. Even minutes before, it will be counting down lol.