Do you use Spaces? How?

The other day in my university I saw a guy using Spaces on his MacBook. It got me thinking "Hey, it's a great Mac feature I'm missing out on!". I got home, turned on my Mac, clicked "Enable Spaces"... And this was it. I know it can help me to be more organized etc but I am kinda lost for some reason. Any tips on how you use it? How can I improve my productivity with Spaces?

I use spaces with Hot Corners to switch between spaces.

I set specific applications to open in specific spaces. iCal in its own space, Safari in another, mail in another, etc etc.

Then when I need to see say iCal and Mail in the same space, I open up all the spaces with the hot corner and drag iCal into the same space as Mail.

It's really a great tool, I love it! Apparently it takes some folks a while to get used to this setup, and there may be better ways to use it. I set it up on a friends mac, and he hated the hot corners, he just couldn't get used to it, but still uses Spaces daily, using the keyboard shortcuts to navigate them.

I use 4 Spaces.

1
Dictionary
Preview
Text Edit
Stickies
Word

2
Calculator
Activity Monitor
iPhoto
Excel

3
Browsers
iCal
Software Update

4
Utilities
Finder
Terminal

I have hot corners set, but only "use" them accidently. I use the F8 key to see all Spaces.

Thanks for your answers!

I used to use the virtual desktop available in Linux back in the day. I am trying to understand the benefit of Spaces on a Mac. I tend to use Expose/Application Expose to find the applications I am using. Expose is set to 4 finger swipe down and Application Expose is set to 4 finger swipe up using Better Touch Tool. I guess I could see it if you have your programs organized - on a per space setting - as mentioned - but you loose full access with Expose when the app you want is on a different space.

Anyway - what is the advantage of using Spaces over Expose in your opinion?

I use 4 spaces, plus the HyperSpaces program.

1
Web browsers (except Opera)
Word processing
Accordance (Biblical studies program)
Page layout
iTunes (now, it used to be in 2)

2
Opera

3
Mail
iCal
Address Book

4
Misc.

I use six spaces to keep different apps open without clutter. I did not use it when I shared the computer with my wife because she did not understand it but now with her own computer, I use it. I use the hot corner feature to open the spaces and found that you can drag an app from one space to another easily. Pretty neat feature, I think.