Congrats on the rake. You'll be surprised how many things you will find to use it for. This time of year mine stays on the tractor most of the time and used for cleaning up all the fallen limbs from the winter.
I use mine probably 90% of the time pushing brush while in reverse, consolidating all the brush into piles. Then use the loader/grapple to haul it away to a big burn pile or gully.
What really increased productivity for me was to remove every other tine. That way I'm not having to get off the tractor every few minutes to remove limbs and vines from in between the tines. When the leaves drop in the fall I'll put all the tines back on.