Are you using on of dem tiling window managers? Which one? And why?
I'm using the (tiling) Awesome WM on Debian Linux (stretch). I'm so used to that WM I don't even remember when I switched.
So that tiling WM and about 10 "workspaces", each with their own layout/program open, mostly all usually laid out always the same way. For example workspace 1 is for personal email + two terminals, workspace 3 is for Emacs + development browser + one terminal, workspace 4 for all my SSH sessions, workspace 8 for browser, workspace 9 for programs I don't use often.
I've got one additional modifer (hyper) that is dedicated only to the WM shortcuts and WM shortcuts are only available through this modifier. I think that's what I liked when I tried Awesome WM: I'm sure i3 or XMonad or whatever would do too but basically it was a one-line change in Awesome to use Hyper as a modifier for all my WM shortcuts.
I only use the mouse for browsing: I switch between windows using shortcuts. I don't have that many windows at once on a single workspace: two to four windows typically.
Setup is not rigid: I can still change layout, move windows between workspaces, open new terminal, resize windows, etc. all with one shortcut.
And because my WM has its own modifier, the shortcuts never ever clash with any other software.