Make sure (in bash-shell) to also search in History using Ctrl-R and then start typing just a few chars from a line you used before. That should speed things up.

And have you ever had to use that last commandline argument again and again? (like mkdir xyz / cd xyz) Start typing cd and the hit ESCAPE and then ‘.’ This will add the previous last commandline argument to your current command-line. How I love bash!

(I know, this was not exhaustive, come, please teach me more!)