Alternative ways to enter the caret

Too often, I find the opposite: I try to double-click between a bar line and the first note of the measure and find the cursor appears after the note, which involves quite a few ALT+Left Arrow presses when the note is tied to subsequent measures.

If I think ahead, I may type before the bar line or choose the note and use ENTER or SHIFT+N, but too often I do not catch myself in time.