Over the last few days I have really found the curve changing. 1-20 was really pretty slow for me. I had collection quests go grey to me before I completed them... blech.
I hit 20 and it was like magic. My xp/hr went from around 1.5-2k to 6-7k. I seriously think it took less time to go from 20-24 than from 16-20. But my first DM run took me like 4 hours. Not because I was wiping, but because I kept stopping, doing research, rewrite macros, come back and test the macro... very slow going. I did BFD much faster, and by my third run everything was really smooth. (I gotta say I hate that murloc room though... doesn't seem to matter how I do it, I always end up with the whole room on top of me. *HATE* murlocs. Got the gloves though).

I love my G11, I think it makes it possible to run 4 different classes. I have all 18 side keys mapped to an impossible key combo like:Ctrl-Alt-Q or Ctrl-Alt-Shift-W. I then have the main part of the keyboard dedicated to my main. G1 is Frost Bolt, G2 is Dot Sequence, etc. Once I got a good pattern down, my guys are running about 95% of what a normal toon would do in terms of dps etc.

I cannot stress enough taking the time to research your macros and get them dialed in. /stopcasting in front of Polymorph is a great example - it is almost mandatory for Poly to work in a multibox setup.

Anyway, just stick with it, it gets a lot easier and more fun once you hit instances, and the quest xp gets higher too.