Well it takes practice and experience along with good working equipment. Changing the rear gears is quite intuitive and fast. Learning to change exactly when you need to is a learned skill. Too late and you will bog on a hill, too early and you will waste momentum.
The real skill is when you need to change the front rings. Whenever you change your front gears there is a big jump in the ratio compared to the rear shifts. The most difficult transitions for newbies are the up hills, knowing if you need to shift chain rings or rear cogs or both. Things can happen so fast, you really need the skill to make it 2nd nature. The best way to learn the skill is to ride the same trail over and over. Every time you ride it you want to perfect your shifts to maximize speed and reduce out of cadence gears that slow you down. Experiment with technique. Of course this is easier if your not trying to ride as fast as possible.
Even experienced riders have difficulty on new trails. Many gear selections I use are based not only on what's in front of me but what's coming up next as well.
Finally, if you're a very strong rider you can fudge at times by pushing a hard gear either by mistake or to maximize speed on a piece of trail coming up. If you're a weak rider you will find yourself doing a lot more shifting. The whole point is to keep yourself in your most efficient cadence range.
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