As a former Vim user, I can recommend evil-mode and the SpaceMacs project:
https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
https://bitbucket.org/lyro/evil/wiki/Home
> An Emacs distribution - The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs and Vim!
Evil is a very, very complete Vim emulation in Emacs. I have yet to find a feature which is missing. Some features work better than the original.
Definitely agree. I tried to force myself into using tags and agenda when I first started and it didn't end well. Instead you should start out using it as a simple TODO list manager and slowly use more advanced features when you figure out how they could fit in with your workflow. I think Carsten Dominik (the original author of Org-mode) put it best:
>What people miss when they are new to Org-mode is this:
>Don't try to set up the "final" task managing system from the start. Because you have no idea yet what your system should look like. Don't set up many TODO states and logging initially, before you actually have a feeling for what you working flow is. Don't define a context tag "@computer" just because David Allen has one, even though you are sitting at a computer all the time anyway! Start by creating and managing a small TODO list and then develop your own system as the needs arises. I wrote Org-mode to enable this development process.
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2008-04/msg...
To me, learning to use the Agenda early on is as important as learning to use Emacs' basic movement commands early on: it will make everything after that much easier.