If you haven’t been using OS X’s Mission Control lately, you’re missing out. It’s a great way to separate out your apps, full screen and not, to be just that much more productive on your Mac.
Trouble is, it seems like a fairly mouse-centric system, with users encouraged to click on the different desktops across the top or the apps in the main window area to bring them up.
Luckily, there are a couple of keyboard shortcuts to help you move between Desktop spaces, at least, and one to help you add or delete them, as well.
Once you activate Mission Control (the default is the F3 key), you can then use the Control-Arrow keys, Left and Right, to navigate between Desktop spaces.
If that’s not enough fine-grained control, you can also use the Control-1, Control-2, -3, -4, etc. keys to navigate directly to the Desktop space, in any order.
There’s a default of four Desktops in Mission Control. If you want to delete one, hit the Option key to see the iOS-style X button in the upper left of the Desktop at the top. If you want to add one, click on the big Plus button to the far right once you hit the Option key.
You’ll still need to click on the app you want to open, here, so there’s some room for improvement. This is a good start, though!