Asklemmy

Tiling windows manager, a good hotkey config, and multiple virtual desktops.

Using workspaces is great (at least in linux), otherwise lookin into other window managers could be beneficial. I use i3-gaps on my small laptop, and gnome on desktop and I frequently swap and split up everything I do into workspaces.

I usually have apps take up the full screen when working - up to three displays (but sometimes even that's not enough.

Windows 11 has basic window management functionality with Snap Layouts, but with the FancyZones power toy, you can customise the available layouts.

Currently I just use a shortcut window manager that allows me to sort windows semi automatically. But definitely looking to go a similar route @Dr.Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org

I find that what is needed depends on the task. Mostly, it's about whether you need to switch views on information frequently. If you're working in a maximally focused way you already have the right info, so you don't have to make the view more diverse.

Two monitors can be really helpful if you're in a situation where you need one view to always stay the same(e.g. reading one document while editing another) and the editing app is some fussy internal thing that always wants to be on the first window when started, but I also haven't had that setup in quite a few years. Tiling can get you 80% of that if the screen is sufficiently large and the software cooperates.

When in Windows I stick to using the Win + arrow keys shortcuts to tile; in Linux I've used a few different WMs over the years but lately have been using Ubuntu defaults and basically working with it like Windows.

There is a lot of utility from not relying on screens and using a small gridded or ruled notebook with a spiral binding as the second screen. Mark it up with color multipens and sticky notes, and take it around in your jacket pocket or a belt bag.

I have like a dozen programs for work, everything has it's own little area designated. And some with overlap, 'cause it all just doesn't fit still. I hate having to find the little icons and keep flipping or tabbing back and forth when I can just adjust my focus area.

Depends on the apps I use. Obviously gaming has to be full screen, and since my laptop screen is small, I usually maximize windows when using certain apps that require large space such as Libreoffice, Firefox, Inkscape, etc.

For a few other apps, such as text editors, I usually divide the screen into two. Typically I have file explorer or music player on one side and text editors on the other.

I use gridmove when working on Windows. A little fussy to set up new templates, but allows complete control over window placement. Like others, I use a different set up depending on what I'm working on. My large main monitor is often split with my IDE taking up 2/3 of the screen and my documentation on the other 1/3.

When working on a laptop with a smaller screen, I often use virtual desktops and split my windows among them. I find it faster to switch between apps that way, knowing exactly where they are in relation to my current screen, compared to alt tabbing through a bunch of windows.

I use a tiling - or specifically a tiled scrollable window manager, PaperWM. I never jived with a tiling wm until this one. It keeps windows the sizes that I set, and scrolls them left and right, moving windows off the edge of the screen if necessary to make room for the focused window.

I have an ultrawide which benefits a lot from tiling. I usually have a terminal at ¼-screen-width, an editor at ¾-width, and a browser at ½-width. When I scroll to the left the terminal and editor are both fully in view. When I scroll to the right I can see either enough of the browser to reference details while I work in the editor, or most of the editor while I read in the browser.

An ultrawide is 4/3 the width of a typical monitor. So the ½-width browser is equivalent to ⅔-width on a typical screen, and the editor is equivalent to full-screen.

When I lived in a house with a big monitor I used a kind of tiled layout. Now that I'm offgrid with a tiny laptop screen I run fullscreen and have multiple virtual desktops. I multiplex terminals with screen or tmux, depending on the use case.

If I'm not doing something fullscreen, I usually tile left-right on my landscape monitor and up-down on my portrait monitor. Tabs are an option, but I usually just switch between workspaces if I want to look at multiple fullscreen apps on one screen. Linux/tiling WM is my favorite environment. My screen management workflow is garbage in windows or macOS.

I recently upgraded to an ultrawide monitor and have been making ample use of Windows's virtual desktops and FancyZones. I have a thumb button on my mouse set to bring up the Win+Tab menu and jump between setups for work, gaming, projects, etc.

I never really used virtual desktops previously (usually on a laptop where it didn't make a huge difference) but the combination with FancyZones has really been a game changer. I'm sure some linux folks are laughing at this being considered a novelty, but it's a very seamless setup.

I am on Linux and use a tiling window manager (i3wm in my case). Have a look at such managers, they are great at optimizing how you use screen real estate.