Rebecca Lewis has three tricks for us:
Three T-SQL features that have shipped over the last few releases and quietly retired patterns many of us are still using out of habit. Each replaces a stale workaround with one line of code, and in two of three cases it runs much faster, too. Take a look, try them out.
Click through for Rebecca’s list. And if you want a full talk’s worth of these sorts of things, I happen to have one.