You didn't say how long you've been playing or what you already know, but for a start, a good grasp of music theory is very helpful. Unless you just plan on learning tabs for your favourite songs, the thing you said about learning your way around the fret board is important for actually knowing what you're doing. If you know all 12 chromatic notes and all 12 intervals (A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, etc, and minor second, major second, minor third, major third, perfect fourth etc) you'll be able to navigate the fretboard a lot easier. If you're in standard tuning, from the lowest-pitched string down to the G string, the note of the open string is the same as the note on the fifth fret (usually the second dot) of the string below it in pitch. Also, the seventh fret on one string is the same note as the string below it in pitch but that seventh fret note is higher in pitch (that interval is called an octave). It's like that for all pairs of string other than the G string and the B string, which are 4 notes apart (so it's the same note on the fourth fret). Hopefully that wasn't patronizing to read. Like I said, you didn't really give us any indication of your current level of ability. Other than learning theory, make sure you're holding the pick properly if you want to play faster, and practice transitioning between any two chords or any two fingers playing different frets, because the hard part is learning to transition from finger position to finger position more than it is learning to physically move your fingers more quickly. Learning a scale (the minor pentatonic scale is a good one for beginners) or learning a chord progression (maybe starting with open string chords rather than barre chords if you're a beginner) will help you learn how the frets relate to each of the 12 chromatic notes.
By the way, this probably should have gone in the instruments thread or the QTDDTOT sticky, since you're just asking a question, but whatever. I'm just posting here to fix the thread because I only just noticed that it's 404ing when I'm out of the mod account.