@SpaceLifeForm @grumpygamer
I remember when learning, I gained the habit to tap Esc while thinking/not typing to ensure I kept booting myself into normal mode.

I also found the most beneficial part of statusline plugins (like vim-airline) was the mode display to give a visual cue -- especially if it only shows a mode in the active buffer. It's far more effective than the built-in`set showmode` because it's always there.