I am also a heavy IntelliJ user but have been using emacs on the side. emacs is fantastic and you only need very basic knowledge of it to be able to effectively

I am also a heavy IntelliJ user but have been using emacs on the side. emacs is fantastic and you only need very basic knowledge of it to be able to effectively use it and org-mode. Don't let the "everything is a shortcut" tutorials/videos about emacs stop you from trying: emacs can be used as any other app: with the mouse, clicking and scrolling around... most IntelliJ shortcuts to edit text will work the same on emacs (a few require you to install a couple of packages, if you want I can send you which ones I use to get a very IJ-like experience).