works for me most of the time, but I never try to use it with other objects close by since the same problem will occur for me.  I keep the hierarchy editor open on the left and use that to make things invisible. If it's a large scene, I make everything invisible since this visibly helps performance, ie, screen redraws. If it's going to be a complex morph I save the object out whether it's a prop or figure, work on it in a new blank scene, save it and pop it back into the larger scene. The is helpful for complex posing too.