One further suggestion: Don't use your shifter as a hand rest. When you're done shifting, rest your right hand somewhere else.

 

+1 on the good thread.
On a slight incline or hill, sometimes I don't even use the handbrake when taking off. I just leave the clutch enough so that the car moves along without any acceleration and then press the gas when I need to/and leave the clutch. Not sure if this is improper. I find this better than to engage the handbrake, and then dis-engage it when moving on. Plus in slow moving traffic, if I dis-engage the handbrake on a hill or something, I'd have to engage it soon after,depending on the traffic flow.

 

That sounds like you're using the clutch, barely engaged, to hold the car from rolling on a hill. That can be hard on the clutch, it gets hot when it is forced to slip, particularly for more than a second or two.

 

http://jalopnik.com/5923247/how-to-d...shift-properly