As per my understanding, you are using the Zoom tool in the axes bar of the figure window and Edit menu from the menu alternatively. One work around to reduce the time of work during the switch between these two options is to enable the property inspector.
Following steps would help you to enable this,
View>Property inspector
By enabling this Property inspector will be populated along side of the Figure window.
Configuring and layouting the window according to the need will help you in minimizing the time to navigate between the edit and zoom mode.
Hope this helps..!