Recently, I had to work from elsewhere while taking care of someone and only had my laptop. I ended up using Stage Manager. While I had always found it kind of a joke on a larger screen, when I just had the laptop and needed to multitask more, it was actually pretty helpful. Similar to using virtual desktops, but easier to switch without having to remember what apps are bound to which desktops as much. I do have the larger MacBook Pro. Giving up some screen real estate to a bunch of thumbnails on a 13” might be a harder sell.
If you are big into tiling window managers, it might be more about linking everything to a key binding so you can easily jump around quickly. Kind of how the Primeagen has his desktop setup, if you’ve ever seen his stuff.
I have a hard time with setups that are too rigid, as a single IM can make my day take a left turn and order turns to chaos pretty quick. There isn’t a lot of space for that in systems that are too rigid.
I disagree; I have a 13" personal machine, and a 15" work machine, and it genuinely feels like a night and day difference if I'm out and about with either one.