1- Understand that it is a programming environment, composed of functions, commands and variables; and all of these are documented, which you can get via `C-h f`, `C-h v`.
2- Any key combination you touch translates to those commands, so `C-h k` which shows you the actual command is key. Learn the commands behind the keys and mix and match to suit your style. Read http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-save-excursion.ht... to get the overall idea. Use smex or helm's helm-M-x to be able to call the commands without remembering their names fully. You can also use apropos to search for commands, but smex or helm is much easier. This way, you don't need to learn that many shortcut keys.
3- Define a shortcut key to open your .emacs file so you can define new commands without extra effort. Keep it to a single file in .emacs.d dir to make things easier. Too many files make things harder to maintain for me.
2- Any key combination you touch translates to those commands, so `C-h k` which shows you the actual command is key. Learn the commands behind the keys and mix and match to suit your style. Read http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-save-excursion.ht... to get the overall idea. Use smex or helm's helm-M-x to be able to call the commands without remembering their names fully. You can also use apropos to search for commands, but smex or helm is much easier. This way, you don't need to learn that many shortcut keys.
3- Define a shortcut key to open your .emacs file so you can define new commands without extra effort. Keep it to a single file in .emacs.d dir to make things easier. Too many files make things harder to maintain for me.
4- Practice on your elisp skills on `ielm`.