EPTThe underlying reason for my argument is this: everyone, or almost everyone (like 99% of players) can improve their macro. And, of course, since macro is arguably the most important fundamental there is, making it as flawless as possible should be your number one priority as an improving Starcraft player.
When I use the word spamming, though, I don't mean clicking 10 times to move a group of units. I find, however, that finger speed is easier to maintain if you have momentum, so some actions like this can help you maintain that momentum. By spamming, I mean actions that are used to select units or structures that don't lead into any commands being given (movement, attacking, building units or structures, and so on).
Now, I know Day[9] recently said you only need about 60 APM in order to do everything that needs doing, but in my experience, mid to late game macro can only be done with 60 APM if you have solid game sense. By that, I mean that you can minimize wasted actions by thinking, "Oh, my probe is about to be finished building, I better go queue up another." This is a feeling that develops with practice, so it can't really be helped. However, you can macro efficiently without having great game sense, and that is by spamming.
Ideal play should result in the HUD and the main screen dealing with two completely separate things. For example, while you're scouting, your camera should be centered on the opponent's base almost all the time while you use the HUD and your keyboard to macro. Of course, you'll have to return to your base momentarily if you want to build a structure or inject larva or something, but those take almost no time to do. Even after scouting, your eyes should almost never be on your base, unless you're fighting off a harass or something similar. Your eyes should be looking at the minimap, watching your food/money, glancing at the buildings or units selected in the bottom bar, and following your army. After all, why waste the very real resource of "time spent looking at stuff" on your base, something that doesn't really need too much attention?
In trying to focus the above ideas into my gameplay, I've started trying to do the following at all times (this is as a zerg player, but I imagine the concept can be easily applied to the other races):
I hotkey my army or scout to 1, all my hatches to 4, and each queen associated with a hatch to 5, 6, and so on. I know a lot of people prefer all their queens to 4 and hatches on individual hotkeys, but I like being able to see the energy of each queen rather than the progress bar, since the queens don't necessarily have enough energy to inject the moment larva pop.
Using this hotkey setup, I repeat the following throughout the whole game. Yes, this includes battles, but for good reason.
1. 4-s while glancing at my food and minerals. If there are larva, I build an overlord if my food is closed to capped and spend the rest on drones/lings/mutas/whatever. If there aren't any larva, whatever. I'll be back to check soon enough.
2. 5-glance at energy, 6-glance at energy, and so on, depending on how many queens I have. If any queen I'm looking at has 25 or more energy, I double tap her hotkey, hit v and click on the hatch.
3. I look at the minimap, glance at my money, move creep tumors forward, rinse and repeat.
As you can imagine, a lot of actions are "wasted." By that, I mean that most of the time I select my hatch or queens, there aren't any larva/the queen doesn't have enough energy to inject. If I were to estimate, I'd say fully 50-60% of my actions go towards not actually doing anything. However, I know that I'm not capable of macroing well without constantly checking on my production structures, so I'd rather be "wasting" acting than having really bad macro.
Of course, this changes slightly during battles. To be honest, though, I'm not an 1800 diamond player, so most of my wins are because of just pure macro. Because of this, I can limit the actions I use in battle to 1a2a3a. After that, I watch the battle to make sure my lings get good surrounds and whatnot, but the rest of my APM goes back to macroing.
At the end of the day, my average APM is 100-120 with minimal microing. I'm not good enough at this to incorporate good micro into my battles, but micro isn't really important to my play, for now. In order to get into my tapping routine, I spam 3-4-s in the first minute or so of the game, with 3 hotkeyed to the drone I'm going to use to build my expansion hatchery. The repetitive motions really help warm up your hands for the rest of the game, so there's almost no excuse NOT to do it.
To sum it up, if your macro isn't perfect, spam! Spam the shit out of your keyboard. Not only will your macro improve, your APM will look super gosu, too.
