Reaching to the top row to type a symbol or number seemed like too much work. So I used a program called KeyRemap4MacBook to overlay the symbols to the home row and numbers to the above row. To activate this I use the space bar as a modifier key.

Overlay 1234567890-= to QWFPGJLUY;[]
arstdhneio' to !@#$%&*()|
zxcvbkm,./ to []-_=+|{}

To use my setting replace or add to the private.xml file and them activate it.

Download private.xml