In the spirit of editing text at the speed of thought.

The mappings presented are shortcuts to traverse the buffer list (first, last, previous, next). This works well for a few files, but when the list grows larger, one has to either issue the next command repeatedly (similar to jjjjjjjjjjjjjj/kkkkkkkk for scrolling lines) or revert back to (slowly) typing :ls<CR> and :b N / :b {bufname}.

A single mapping that is often suggested is nnoremap <leader>b :ls<CR>:b<space> which quickly prints the buffer list and prompts for a buffer number or name. In combination with the already presented <C-^> toggle, one can really fly through the buffers.