So far the only system I’ve been pretty happy with is a manual tiling tool that I wrote myself, exec’d by my OpenBox keybindings.

I use keyboard shortcuts or dmenu to launch most apps, which are often terminals or keyboard friendly tools.

When a new window appears, it is focused. I typically immediately use Shift-Meta and the numeric keypad to move it to a zone (location & size) on the current monitor. I use Control-Shift-Meta for similar but larger overlapping zones. KP_5 is always centered and larger.

To focus windows, I use Meta and the numeric keypad, and it cycles through all the windows which are (primarily) in that zone.

Shift-Meta and a number sends a window to another virtual desktop, and Meta takes me to that desktop. Shift-Meta-O sends a window to the next monitor, if I have one attached, and Meta-O switches to the last used window on the other monitor.

This arrangement quickly became second nature and makes my life easier. I often bring one window to the center for focused work, then return it to its corner.

I’ll be bugging developers of wayland compositors until I can achieve the same there.