I've really gotten more lazy with my Game Master Character Generation in Earthdawn lately. Basically, all I need are attributes and important skills and I am done. Its really the same deal in DnD. What are you gonna roll in combat? If you aren't gonna use that Lock Picking skill, why bother putting it on the page?
In a way, I really like the DnD 4e approach to monsters here, as they use a lot of simple "This is what you are gonna do with this monster" language.
For me in Earthdawn I use the Step 5, Step 6, Step 7 system, where the weak mooks have Step 5/D8 in everything, Step 6/D10 for henchmen types, and Step 7/D12 for the big bads for human opponents. Applying that to DnD, you could have all mooks have say 11s on everything (+0), use an elite array for henchmen (or something like straight 13s so that they are all +1) and say 15 (+2 for the main bad for all his stats). Its not particularly realistic to the game world's general stat distribution (at least the all 15s guy with DnD point distribution), but assigning attributes as minions +0, hench +1, leader +2 and then adding the various class identifiers can work well. Like for example a fighter with level = BAB, so a mook fighter at L1 would have +1, hench +2, leader +3. Add a D20 to that and you are golden for their hit rolls, then decide a weapon. Like dagger D4+0 for mook, D4+1 for hench, D4+2 for leader for example. At L5 its +5/+6/+7 for hit rolls. At L10 +10/+11/+12 for hit rolls. etcetera. As long as you remember your quick extrapolations, things get relatively easy. First key as Game Master is don't overstat if you can help it. Make things relatively fair but easy for you to remember.