I don't have any reference material/tutorials, but my major breakthrough with Vim was when I understood that normal mode is the norm. Anytime you're not entering text, be in normal mode. Remap jk or jj to escape. Get in the habit of typing it whenever you're done adding text. Use hjkl for movement instead of the arrow keys. Learn the f,t, and o commands.
http://cloudhead.io/2010/04/24/staying-the-hell-out-of-inser...