I have jj mapped to Esc in insert mode. If you type it quickly, the two j characters vanish and you escape out of insert mode. If you type them slowly, or prefa

I have jj mapped to Esc in insert mode. If you type it quickly, the two j characters vanish and you escape out of insert mode. If you type them slowly, or preface them with ^v, you get two j characters in your text. I rarely need two j's in my text, of course, so it's a good escape key sequence, but pick whatever you want. I chose jj because it keeps me on home row.