Note that each job gets an identifier (which you can see by running `jobs`). Other commands like `kill` can work with the id number by using %[id]. For example:

    $ some_command
    ^Z (hit control z)
    $ some_command_2
    ^Z (hit control z)
    $ jobs
    [1]-  Stopped                 some_command
    [2]+  Stopped                 some_command_2
    $ kill %1
    $ jobs
    [1]-  Terminated: 15          some_command
    [2]+  Stopped                 some_command_2

Way back in my college days, one of the student admins took down the CS department's server by forgetting the % and killing process 1 by mistake.

I have my terminal emulator configured to set the URGENT ICCCM hint when it sees a bell character. When I realize a command I just entered is going to take a while, and I want to go look at something else on another workspace, I do this:

    $ alias b='echo -e "\a"'

    $ long_running_thing
    ^Z
    $ fg ; b
    [long_running_thing resumes]

Then when the job completes, the terminal bell will ring and my window manager will get my attention.

You can also use "jobs" to see background and stopped tasks. If there are multiple jobs, you can use "fg 2" to foreground the second job on the list, etc.

Another nice job management tool is disown, which lets you log out of your session without killing the job (similar to starting the command with nohup)

And also, you can pass the -h flag to disown to leave the job in the job control table (i.e. you can still bring it to the foreground/suspend it/etc.), but still skip sending the SIGHUP on logout.

i normally have this :

fork() { (setsid "$@" &); }

in myzshrc, and then start stuff with :

fork firefox