I use the wonderfully minimalist
ratpoison window manager.
Unlike most window managers, ratpoison leaves my shortcut keys alone.
I can do everything without lifting my hands from the keyboard.

The important parts of my ~/.Xsession are simply:

emacs &
exec ratpoison

This is my ~/.ratpoisonrc

banish
escape F11

Whenever I start up X, I get Emacs in full-screen mode. I can use F11
c to create a terminal window. If I need to refer to another
application, I use F11 :split and :hsplit to arrange my screen. F11
:only returns to my one-window layout.

ratpoison doesn't deal well with window-y applications like the GIMP,
but that's what the :tmpwm command is for. I usually switch to FVWM
with :tmpwm fvwm when I need to use GIMP, then exit FVWM to return to
my ratpoison environment when done.

Great stuff. Glad Clair's checking it out.