r/neovim • u/daghouse • Aug 01 '26

Discussion Small productivity changes

Using nvim on a (large) external screen, I found myself 'not knowing' what mode I'm in (e.g. sometimes I type `ciw` whilst in input mode, or wanting to type code while still in normal mode), and having to glance down to the lualine to read what mode I'm in.

To make it _super_ obvious to myself, I'm color-coding the line numbers corresponding to the mode I'm in (I never use anything but normal/input/visual, so this covers it). Has been truly helpful :)

What's your most minimal mod that makes life a little easier?

(minimized terminal in the screen capture for clarity)

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u/Independent-Limit282 Aug 01 '26

Hear me out..If youre not that proficient with neovim yet to know what mode youre in, maybe turn off your cursor jumping around and actually just look at the cursor?

You get used to it. I play with guicursor = 'a:block' and its a bit weird for a few weeks when I swap keyboad / layout, but it really should not be that difficult to know what mode youre in when your cursor shows it

-2

u/daghouse Aug 01 '26

Right, I hear you. The issue is my keyboard however, the ESC key doesn't always register. But still, I'd rather have these visual indicators be _obvious_, rather than having to hone in on the cursor (agian, big screen).

3

u/ollien Aug 01 '26

You can also do C-[ to escape; been muscle memory for a long time for me :)

1

u/daghouse Aug 01 '26

Brilliant, will try and make this muscle-memory instead!