Tipster Kent Elrod describes a work process that provides easy access to standard styles and blocks using AutoCAD's Design Center.

"I like having DRAWING1.DWG active when I start AutoCAD. When DRAWING1.DWG is created, it is made from my template file that holds all of my standard dimstyles, layer groups, layers, layouts, linetypes, multileaders, tablestyles, textstyles, xrefs, and basic commonly used blocks.

I have two screens, and I keep Design Center open on the secondary screen. When I have a drawing open and I find that a layer, dimstyle, etc. is missing from that drawing, I can go to Design Center, select the Open Drawings tab, click on DRAWING1.DWG, and I have my latest information at my fingertips, ready to drag and drop into my drawing. This is much faster than navigating to a file in Design Center, especially to a template file folder location that is many levels deep.
 
I also use DRAWING1.DWG as a kind of sketch pad. I can do trial-and-error work, draw and wblock objects out, paste and clean up a clip before moving it to its final resting place, etc."
 

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: Templates and design standards will make your job easier every time. Make a template file or a block library; once the data is there, you can use Design Center to bring it into any file. You can also use Design Center to make a tool palette of your standard blocks. Start every file with the template file so you will have what you need at the beginning. Plus, you can always go back to it if something is lost or needs to be replaced.