Find the "sweet spots". You have to position the phone just right on the pad, but there are a few spots. Mine is usually about 1/4" below the bottom edge of the pad and about 1/2" to the right of it. There's also one with the phone across the pad. That way you can just drop the phone on the pad without having to fumble until you find the right spot. (It should charge just a little bit faster than the USB port on your computer - USB charging is 450mA, wireless is about 600mA and AC charging is about 1,200mA.)
Get a good wifi or Bluetooth file transfer app. Get wireless adb and wireless Kies. Then if your microUSB port breaks, you can take your time getting it fixed - you can do just about everything wirelessly.
(If you really want to get fancy, spring the $3 for Tasker and learn how to use it, so your lock screen unlocks and mobile data is off when you get home and USB debugging is off when you're out. And GPS and wireless data turn on automatically when you run your GPS route app.)