Most people that know me knows that I’m a vim user, I really love my editor but sometimes when I ask why I love it, I can’t articulate why because most of the good stuffs about it are just part of my muscle memory which I have to think very hard to explain at the moment I just can do.

The other day a friend of mine saw me some normal stuffs that I do with the editor and he ask me “Please, tell me how I can learn it”; I found this particular person very smart and I know that he can grabs vim quite fast but after asking him a couple of questions regarding the way he was learning the editor he told me the following:

  • I don’t know where to start
  • I try to use it but after 2 hours I just give up because I need to get things done.

With this post I will try to suggest a one month plan to learn vim for real; of course follow this steps on your own time and not if you need to do something else; aka Don’t start learning a new editor at your job.

Week 1

  • Do vimtutor two times everyday - Well this probably is a no brainer but people tend to do the vimtutor just one time and then forget to practice what they learn, my suggestion is to just do it for a week 2 times a day and at the end of the week at least you will move yourself around very easily.

Week 2

  • Switch editors - At this point you should be able to switch the current editor that you were using and move yourself to vim.

Week 3

  • Find a vim mentor - He/she doesn’t have to be a master on the editor it just have to be using it at least for more than 6 months; ask him/her questions and learn.

Week 4

  • Print this cheatsheet and put it near you all the time.

That’s it, this is a very basic plan which I think could work for a beginner with the editor. If you think there’s something different that a newbie should know this includes me, share it please, I’m eager to learn more about this fascinating editor.

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