Right, it becomes automatic thought->fingers edits. So yesterday, when I was dealing with some javascript on a webpage, i had a realization that if I did some restructuring of my closures, the code would be smaller and simpler to understand. As soon as I was thinking my fingers were already setting a couple of marks, and putting various lines at various indent levels[1]. Then I thought, these need to be grouped together by indent level, and the reordering was happening, again almost background. I never once thought get rid of this line here and put it here. I thought, ok move this line down a few, move this chunk to the outer scope. Put these lines in a separate function.

Yes I could do this slower/more methodically with other editors, but I tend to think visually, so I visualize the text transforming as I think about the code. The power of vim for me is that I have a language of text transformation that can be simply translated to commands at a speed near to me thinking it.

Much like when typing documents, words in head -> text on screen doesn't involve a lot of "and now i press 'a', now i press 'b'".

[1] at one point this would have been a conscious decision, but since I try to maintain consistent indenting to help define scopes, and since vim has a lot of good indent/unindent commands, I had a realization that this could help refactoring. After some practice it became automatic since its a simple << or >> in normal mode to change indent level. Now it has become a wired pathway in my head, so I just think, "oh this goes up a scope" and the actual steps of "so dedent which means press <<" never registers.

This is something to aspire to (for me). I rely on a core subset of vim commands far too often, and need to expand my vim vocabulary. It's a matter of investment in one of my most important tools. Unfortunately I'll probably need to do it a few times so it sticks, or review everything but only focus on integrating into my daily routine a subset of that each time so there's a chance it sticks.

I've found the following works well for me.

Every 3-6 months I review my understanding of VIM, browse the help manual, browse the vim tips site, and browse the vim subreddit. I find a few things I don't know but actually look useful to me, and queue them up for workflow integration.

Then I pick one for a week. I consciously keep it in mind, and when I notice I didn't use it, I undo and force myself to do the other way. Eventually it's enough to get the habit. So I move on. Repeat until the queue is empty. Then let all those things settle in for a while and after a few months, go to the top.

The other thing I forced myself to do is: become aware of random frustrations or annoyances when using Vim. The question "is there an easier way to do this?" has a disproportionately high nubmer of "yes" answers, so I track down then and there how to do it better. The reasoning is that - if I'm getting annoyed, it's because I keep having to do something, so right now is a good time to learn the solution while I have a bunch of practice available in my normal working day. The trick is to realize that it's like writing a script: i'll put some time in up front right now, but the work will overall get done faster, and the long tail of future improvements will add up to huge gains.

The final thing to note: I regularly rediscover Vim features. Like you mention, stuff just slips out sometimes, it's no big deal. My current workflow and common command set is different than it was a year, or 2 or 3 years ago. Some things I'm sure I'm less efficient with, and other more. But overall the trend is towards more proficiency and better usage, so it's OK that stuff comes and goes from my awareness :)

HTH

And you don't have to swap-to-disk to start writing a command in Vim-speek?

No.

EDIT: This isn't to say that vim is the only solution to this problem.

Of course not, do you have to swap-to-disk to start moving files around in your shell or file management app?