Ah, fair enough.

Generally, you want to stay out of insert mode as much as possible (memorize most of the movement commands and use them), use splits liberally (if you have a big monitor) and use generic awesome plugins such as: NERDTree, surround.vim, snipmate, taglist.vim, etc. Use a complete mode that works with your language of choice or a third-party one that gives more. Omnicomplete is a good place to start and it's built in.

Check out the vim sub-reddit, vimcasts.org, and the Daily Vim blog. There is a wealth of information in those places.

Shoot me an email (see profile) if you want more specific guidance. I initially planned to type stuff out here but remembered how awful the formatting is.