Rhino, the only thing I can recommend (having made some crap beers and some awesome beers) is that there are no shortcuts. The process, as you've read it, is as efficient as it can be. Be creative with recipes, but don't skip or alter any steps. There's 8,000 years of experience behind those steps. Don't go cheap with sanitation, it's your best friend.
And, as for recipes, be creative, but not too creative. Find a recipe online that people support, brew it, and then consider how to change it, but use baby steps.
When I made my first beer, I considered some of the steps too trivial and I skipped them. That beer was crap (and, BTW, I did the gasket-through-the-lid thing and was elbow deep looking for it). When I made my second beer, I paid a little more attention, but I was too excited and kept checking it and sampling it. The result = crap. The third beer? Mega-Crap because I got too creative with the recipe (I'm hoping that time will heal it, but 6 months have barely helped). Fourth beer? Decent, but not fantastic. Beers 5, 6 and 7 are phenomenal. Beer 8 has a week more in the secondary and it's showing nothing but promise. Beer 9 will be started soon. It's a variation on Beer 6 and I'm really looking forward to it.