You're going to hate this but it's still as far as i can tell the best way: emacs -q C-h t RET ;; do that stuff M-: (info "(emacs")) RET ;; read stuf

You're going to hate this but it's still as far as i can tell the best way: emacs -q C-h t RET ;; do that stuff M-: (info "(emacs")) RET ;; read stuff that looks interesting, then: q Then start using emacs: emacs <whatever-file> ;; don't know what a key does? C-h k <that key sequence> RET ;; want to add a package? M-x package-install <the package> RET ;; don't know what a function is? C-h f <the name> RET ;; don't know what a variable is? C-h v <the name> RET Then, for what OP wants: touch ~/notes/notes.org cd ~/notes git init . && git commit -am "i'm taking notes!" emacs notes.org ;; type lots of notes here, you'll figure out your own best practices as you go, don't worry about it much, just take notes.