The Sketch Pallette takes up a lot of screen area. Also, the icons and check boxes are all the way at the edge of the screen. The mouse has to travel over the text labels to reach them. So two suggestions, both very simple and nothing new to have to learn:
1) Swap the icon and label columns as shown below. Then make the pallette as narrow as it can be to fit everything in.
2) Make the labels clickable as well as the icons. Basically, expand the click area to cover both.