I've tried various layouts but the one I have currently works quite well for the thing I am working on:
- I have a RMarkdown document I am editing. I pop this out into its own window, full-height to my screen and 80 columns wide (plus I have the document outline sidebar open).
- I then have the plot/view zoom in its own square window, not too big.
- Then I have the main RStudio window open but quite small, with Console zoomed (Ctrl+Shift+2) so that's all I see of that window
Mostly I am working in the RMarkdown editor window and using Ctrl+Enter/Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run lines or chunks, which then execute in the Console window. Ctrl+2 takes my focus over to the Console. Alt+Tab takes me back to the editor. Ctrl+Shift+5 takes me to the files pane zoomed in, Ctrl+Shift+8 takes me to the Environment tab. Other shortcuts open other panes but I rarely use most of the other panes at the moment.
My main frustration is that when I generate a new plot, it doesn't just render in the zoomed viewer window but also in the Viewer tab, which takes focus away from the console, so then I have to do Ctrl+2 to get the focus back to the console. If I could turn this behaviour off then I would be very happy.