Printing on my computer takes up a terrible amount of processor time. What's worse, so does a job simply waiting to be printed! So, if your computer seems to be getting bogged down by the simplest of tasks, take a look at your printer queue under the Printer Setup Utility (in Applications/Utilities), and make sure there's nothing waiting, just in case.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=200607122202180