If you want zero-config portability, learn vim. It's installed everywhere and is very useful. But if you're set on emacs, here's some stuff that helped me. The

If you want zero-config portability, learn vim. It's installed everywhere and is very useful. But if you're set on emacs, here's some stuff that helped me. The video on golfing is great to learn how to "think Emacs": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE2haYu0co8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE2haYu0co8 Avoid using Ctrl; either palm-press or map Capslock to Ctrl. http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_pinky.html http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_pinky.html Don't lean heavily on movement commands, the easiest way to navigate around Emacs is searching. Instead of pressing C-p five times or even C-u C-p C-p, just search for the word you're going to with C-s. Official reference card is good: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/refcards/pdf/refcard.pdf https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/refcards/pdf/refcard.pdf Steal heavily from other people's configs. Since you're new and you like org-mode see these two files: https://github.com/magnars/.emacs.d/blob/master/settings/sane-defaults.el https://github.com/magnars/.emacs.d/blob/master/settings/san... http://pages.sachachua.com/.emacs.d/Sacha.html#org2b182a5 http://pages.sachachua.com/.emacs.d/Sacha.html#org2b182a5 Hope that helps.