The quickest way to navigate throughout Photoshop and Elements is to learn your "shortcuts".  If a shortcut has been established for any certain "action or tool" in Photoshop you can find out what it is by hovering your mouse over the tool you want to use, or when you go to  - for instance -  file - save file -  you will see the shortcut for that action.  Here are just a few shortcuts for the tools located on the left-hand side of the toolbar for Photoshop - (Some Elements shortcuts may be different)

M - is for the Marquee  Tool                 L - is for the Lasso Tool

C -  is for the Crop Tool                       J - is for the Patch Tool

S - is for the Clone Stamp Tool            E - is for the Eraser Tool

B - is for the Blur Tool                         A - is for the Path Selection Tool

P - is for the Pen Tool                         N - is for the Notes Tool

H - is for the Hand Tool                       V - is for the Move Tool