You can minimize the time it takes for a general queue job to start running by estimating the maximum wall-clock runtime. Instead of explicity selecting a general queue (short, medium, long, xlong, xxl), supply the '-W' RUNLIMIT argument to the bsub command. LSF will terminate the job if it exceeds the run limit. The automatic queue selection feature will place your job in the most appropriate queue on the run limit so you no longer have to keep track of the queue defaults: