I cut my lag time down to almost nothing and my fermentation times in half when I started rehydrating my dry yeast in my second runnings (first run of a double batch sparge, usually about 1.035 or so) and then spin it on a magnetic spin plate for about an hour and a half. After reading the replies to this thread though, I'm thinking about trying to rehydrate the yeast for about 15 minutes in a bit of my brew water that has been boiled and cooled, then adding it to the second runnings (also boiled and cooled) and spinning it on the plate. This way the first wave of hydration is only with water and then add some food to the mix.