I find myself constantly typing (using tab, of course) absurd paths like

cd path/to/the/thing\ that\ I\ need/python/proj/eraseme

Aside from doing an ln -s (or some other type of ln?), is there any other way to get around faster? Also, if the solution is to use ln, is there some standard way/place to put the links so a not to clutter my ~ directory?

I'm not asking for shortcuts only: any solution that helps with the problem of "how to get around" would help.