One of the greatest frustrations when writing Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie and subsequently Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie was the constant need to rearrange the windows on the laptop in order to see what I needed to refer toย either online or elsewhere on the computer; photos, maps, posts to the website, research… I dreamed of one day sorting myself out with either a ยฃ2,000 27 inch iMac with Retina 5K display (unlikely) or at least setting up an arrangement with a larger monitor attached to the MacBook Pro (more likely). It will come as little surprise that I went for the latter option and here it is in all its technological glory. It may not be an all singing, all dancing iMac but it is a rather more modestly-priced Samsung (curved!) 24 inch monitor. And the observant amongst you will note that the first paragraph of The 35 Degrees: Heading North on a Bike Called Reggie has been written! I only wish I could say with certainty whether it should beย ‘laid‘ or ‘lay‘ in thatย final sentence…ย 
why dont you use virtual desktop thats native to osx? I use it all the time. instead of alt tabbing, I just swipe with 3 fingers left and right to refer to whatever I need to. It’s way more efficient than alt tabbing. You loose less focus.
I mostly use my mac connected to a 24″. But I still have 5 desktops.
main window, lightroom, photoshop, misc and evernote. All just swipes away.