I really like to read and have a pretty good library of books and in one of my photography books, the author describes a way to get to know your camera. He said you should take your camera in-hand and with your eyes closed or in some cases looking thru the viewfinder, and to go over each and every button imaginable, changing ISO, shutter speed, AF to MF, etc. He said to do it over and over again and that after about a week or so these things will become second nature and you can make changes on the fly without having to remove your eye from the viewfinder.
Turns out he's right. I've been doing this for nearly a week now and I see exactly what he's talking about. At first it kinda sounded simplistic, and maybe it is, but the more you do it the more it becomes second nature. It's starting to remind me of typing and how I no longer think of the letters in a word but just the word itself and my fingers automatically spit it out. I'm not 100% of the way there yet but I can see it developing into a similar scenario.