Sitting in my local nipping home after every pint to buy stuff (working out when I get back to pub how many billion per pint of drinking time I'm on - up to 11m-ish Cps). Annoyed that I'm missing the golden cookies that will be popping up on screen. Pretty sure that they, especially with the upgrades that make them appear much more quickly, are the quickest way to 'win'.
A lot of it is just watching numbers tick up indeed, but the x7 Cps for 77 secs that a golden cookie frenzy gives you seems the key to the quick growth spurts needed. Have been on it for 10 hours but in the pub for most of that so only managed 13 golden cookie clicks, hence on 42m-ish Cps. Good enough, but had I clicked every golden cookie in 10 hours, I'd probably be on a billion Cps now. I really like that the thing I think has the biggest benefit is the one that requires sitting there staring at the screen permanently, rather than leaving it to run. People's bosses and partners may disagree!