I entirely approve of starting small, including avoiding tags and many different TODO keywords, but I think avoiding the Agenda is a <i>bad</i> idea. If your files start out simply, the Agenda will be easy to use. And once you learn its commands, and how to manipulate Org files through the Agenda (instead of editing the file itself), you will have gained a power that will continue to pay dividends later, as you get better at Org.<p>To me, learning to use the Agenda early on is as important as learning to use Emacs&#x27; basic movement commands early on: it will make everything after that much easier.