[q_revert]

I use <space> as my Easymotion leader..

https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-easymotion

it's well worth a look, gives you super quick fine grained movement

similarly

    inoremap jj <ESC>

to take you from INSERT mode to NORMAL mode is nice

[eridius]

I've been using

    inoremap jk <ESC>

for a long time now, and it works like a charm.

[msutherl]

Likewise. Started with 'jj', but 'jk' is significantly faster. Only downside is that you can't actually type 'jk'. Now everybody thinks I'm serious all the time.

[recuter]

twiddle with the timing settings (I forget). So typing 'jk' only very quickly indeed will register as ESC.

[thenmar]

jj is great, I also use ; as : to save a key press on a very common command

[daGrevis]

I used `;` remapped to `:` for some time as well, but native functionality of `;` is just too awesome!

[normalocity]

I like the jj trick as well.