The essential and usual one handed listing aliases:

  alias l='ls -laFT'
  alias ll='ls -1aF'
  alias k='ls -laFTrt'
  alias kk='ls -1aFrt'

Some X + tee magic for logging.

  alias xlog='mv .xlog.txt .xlog.txt.old && startx -- -nolisten tcp 2>&1 | tee . xlog.txt > /dev/console'

  alias xdbg='mv .xdbg.txt .xdbg.txt.old && startx -- /usr/X11R6/bin/X -keepPriv 2>&1 | tee .xdbg.txt > /dev/console'

And in ~/.xinitrc run an oddly colored xterm with /dev/console output:

  xterm -C -fg '#b00020' -geometry 80x38+0+0 &

Most folks don't start X manually but when working on X itself, extra logging can often help.