I started off using linux with KDE plasma which by default is a floating window manager. I started using shortcuts such as meta+num to switch apps in the taskbar as well as meta+arrows to quick tile windows around. This worked well for most of what I needed for quite some time.

However I started looking at other peoples workflows and started to experiment more. Part of this was trying to use various tiling window managers. The idea of a more structured workflow was appealing but I was still used to a full desktop environment and at the time the options didn't meet my needs.

From these experiments I was inspired to start using workspaces more which KDE calls virtual desktops to help organise my windows. I settled on 3 workspaces, one for general use, one for work and one for gaming. By default I found tiling required keeping track of more workspaces unless tabs were available but in KDE I could have as many as I wanted by default.

To help get used to the workspaces I also switched from taskbar shortcuts to workspace shortcuts so I could quickly switch between them. Before I would press meta+num and it would always show the same pinned app which most of the time is okay but now I can switch to a different window and keep the same shortcut to get to it.

And then I discovered the concept of a scrolling window manager. The structured layout like tiling but without window resizing friction since windows are on an infinite strip going to the right that you can scroll through. Took some time to set up the kwin script karousel so I could use this on KDE and it has been part of my workflow since.

I still tinker with window managers from time to time and I think with shells like quickshell you can get a similar desktop environment experience to KDE so I want to try using that more in the future. Overall happy with where my workflow is at and how it has evolved over the years.