[weavejester]

This was my approach as well. When I started using Vim I used it almost like a normal editor, and spent most of my time in insert mode. Gradually I started spending more time in normal mode, and eventually I incorporated more advanced features like text objects and surround.vim into my daily editing.

Mastering Vim takes time, but the slope to learning it is pretty shallow. Learning Vim doesn't feel like a chore to me, because I just pick up new commands every so often.