Once you get into things, you may want to be mobile. Keep your media in one folder on a portable drive. Here's a real-world situation and advice from an experienced After Effect artist.
"If I have ten section titles all based on the same basic layout, I will build the first four," said Rich Rubasch of Tilt Media. He then copies the project to another machine and starts it rendering. Then he returns to the original computer and "finishes the builds on the first system.)
By remembering to use multiple machines, an AE artist can speed up their render workflow.