wow, comonn give this guy a break. Maybe hes just a newb looking for answers. you were once too.
as far as ive noticed, nobody has given Kevin the right advice.
even though it WAS kindof a dumb question, the answer is this, Kevin:
You should NEVER ever need to go into this gear... it creates too much side to side cross pressure on the chain. it makes noise and limits your shifting.
the idea is to keep your shifting centered as much as possible.
if you ever are going up a 45 degree climb, and you must be in the granny ring and the little cog (that you speak of) try shifting to the middle ring and a medium cog instead before that climb, and build some cadence (pedal your arse off), its about the same gearing physically, and its better on your chain, also giving you more options in giving you more gears to shift up or down to.
(if you drive manual, a good analogy is its like going 20 mph in 1st, so shift!)

ALSO i hope people know you are supposed to shift up before a climb, not during. All this is learned if you do a tour or do alot of road cycling.

Phantomcow you gave poor advice here in my opinion. but who am i. im clueless about your cliques here, im here to share what i know and learn, thats all