Why make C-a your prefix key? Just because it's the default in 'screen'? I use C-a a lot to go to BOL, just like C-e to go to EOL. I also use C-b a lot with C-f.

The obvious choice is C-z.

You rarely suspend processes and when you do, C-zC-z is pretty quick. For other combos, it pays to have control and z close to each other so that when your little finger and ring finger operate C-z then your other fingers can freely type whatever follows the prefix without having to unwind your fingers back from the keyboard first.

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Biganon a day ago | parent [-]

> it pays to have control and z close to each other

Well there you have it, control and z are not close to each other on my keyboard, yet control and a are.

What's your layout?

	▲	em-bee 18 hours ago \| parent [-]
		z near control is standard qwerty layout. you probably have qwertz which is actually less common globally. but you are right, in your case z is not the right key. choose another. i use o as my main key now, not very close but close enough. alternatives i use and have used are q, s, d, x, and a few others. even ] can work if you have a US keyboard at least. i avoided a and e since they are used on the commandline often. (although elvish doesn't support them by default so that's training me to not need them there)