Using < and > for shifts becomes even more powerful when combined with a movement, e.g. indenting 20 lines of code at once: 20>> or indenting an entire {} block (including braces) >a{ or an entire block (not including braces) >i{

> i've always used 0i\t\t\t\t...\esc to shift.

Also consider I instead of 0i (it's not quite identical, but should serve the same purpose).