That's pretty much what I do! 3x3 virtual desktops, Win+(qwe,asd,yxc) switches to one just like the keys are laid out on my (qwertz) keyboard.

Top middle is browser. Bottom left is everything chat and communication. Center left is the editor. Whatever is out of place is mercilessly closed or moved if I'm feeling generous.

The problem i have with this kind of thing is that i very often want to reference something in browser while using my editor or similar so have ing them on different desktops is really inefficient.

You can monetarily move browser to the same workspace with a single hotkey.

That's a decent approach to window management as well. I still use virtual desktops for windows that I want to have open but don't need to switch to often. The reason I build Smart Switcher is I wanted something that works well for managing a single virtual desktop and only uses two keys for the shortcuts. By default it overrides Alt + Tab.

Indeed. When I read this, I thought: "Doesn't he know about virtual workspaces?"

I also use a tiling WM (awesomeWM). I tend to keep one window per workspace, and then merely select multiple workspaces if I need to see multiple windows in tandem.

For my work Windows laptop, I've installed a virtual workspace manager.