Emacs is worth trying for a month or two at a minimum. I don't really use Emacs for note taking primarily, so I'm not sure of what packages people use.

If your new to emacs completely, I'd start with the official tutorial by opening emacs and typing C-h t (or in the menu bar at the top selecting tutorial). It takes an hour or so to complete.

Then I would just start using emacs to do any tasks you like, while reading Mastering Emacs by M. Petersen. It's very expensive for a book, at $50, but you can find EPUB formats online for free.