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The practical way to make Linux terminal work feel like a speedrun is to time commands, spot a recurring delay, and try one targeted shortcut at a time. Bobby Jack describes this as a personal measure-and-improve routine—not a standardized benchmark or proof that any tool will make every user faster.
Start with a real source of friction
Pick a task you repeat often, or a command that regularly takes long enough to interrupt your workflow. The point is not to install a collection of utilities first; it is to notice where time or repeated effort is actually going, then test a change that addresses that specific problem.
Jack’s account is a practical workflow, not a controlled productivity study. It reports no general time-saving figure, and its examples do not establish that a particular shell feature or utility will improve everyone’s speed.
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Time one program or script
For a one-off measurement, prefix the command with the standard time command, for example time du. This gives you a duration for that run. Jack’s article shows one illustrative du run taking 186 seconds; that is a single example, not a typical result or comparative benchmark.
#1 Best Overall
Observe command durations during normal Zsh use
If you want to notice longer commands as part of your usual shell routine, Zsh provides the preexec and precmd hooks. preexec runs before a command, while precmd runs before the next prompt. Jack describes using these hooks to surface longer command durations. REPORTTIME is a simpler Zsh setting for reporting command runtimes.
These are two different measurement approaches: time targets an individual invocation, while hooks or REPORTTIME can make duration reporting part of ongoing shell use.
Reduce repetition with the right shell feature
Reuse or edit a command from history
When you are repeating or correcting a recent command, history expansion and editing can avoid retyping it. !$ expands to the previous command’s last argument, and !! expands to the previous command. Caret substitution can make a simple correction to a previous command. Use fc when you want to edit a prior command before running it again.
These features are useful only when the previous command is the one you intend to reuse. Review the expanded or edited command before execution, especially when it changes files or has other consequential effects; reducing keystrokes is not the same as improving safety.
Use an alias for a stable command
An alias is a good fit when you repeatedly type the same stable command, such as a preferred long-format file listing. It shortens a known command, but is less suited to an operation whose behavior needs to vary across arguments or steps.
Use a function for a repeatable operation
A shell function is better when a repeated task takes arguments or combines multiple actions. Jack gives a mkd function as an example: it creates a directory path and changes into it. This turns a multi-step operation into a reusable command while allowing the operation to accept a path.
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Choose optional tools by the task they address
Jack names several utilities as options for specific kinds of terminal friction. They are alternatives to try against a need, not winners established by comparative testing.
- tmux: session management.
- fzf and fd: searching.
- zoxide: directory navigation.
Tab completion, background processes, and command chaining are other shell capabilities Jack mentions. His account does not provide a tutorial or comparative evaluation of those techniques, so treat them as possible directions to explore rather than guaranteed improvements.
Best Value
Make the speedrun a repeatable experiment
- Notice a recurring delay. Identify a real task, command, or navigation step that costs attention or time more than once.
- Choose an appropriate measurement. Use
timefor an individual program or script; consider Zsh runtime reporting if you want durations to surface during normal use. - Match one change to the friction. Reuse history for a recent command, create an alias for a stable command, or write a function for a repeatable operation with arguments or multiple steps.
- Try it in your own routine. Keep the change if it suits your work and habits. Revert or revise it if it adds confusion or does not address the delay you noticed.
Jack sums up his personal experience this way: “Now that I’m measuring command times and identifying performance gains, my day-to-day Linux use is getting more and more efficient.” That is his account of the process, not an independent estimate of time saved.
Terminal recording is optional
The speedrun workflow does not require recording terminal sessions. If you want a capture for replay or sharing, asciinema’s official documentation describes recording, replaying, and streaming terminal output, and identifies the project as free and open source: asciinema CLI.
One configuration detail matters when recording: asciinema’s FAQ says recording starts a new shell instance by default, so configuration kept only in login-shell files may not load. The FAQ gives asciinema rec -c "/bin/bash -l" as one option: asciinema FAQ. Recording is a separate convenience, not a required timing or optimization step.
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