Patience is always the hardest....
If you are in the credit gardening stage and have your balances paid off, there's not a lot more to do. One possibility is becoming an authorized user on someone else's credit card. That helps if the card is older than your average age of accounts. It also needs to be a card that doesn't show a balance. And, of course, it needs to have a crystal clear history.
Sounds as if you are going to control your inquiries as well. Good goal.
