Slow emacs startup - emacs

Question

My emacs takes a few seconds to start up every time, which is slower than I'd expect. During that time, it says "contacting host: " marmalade-repo and melpa.
Is my current config a reasonable one? Is there a way I can speed it up, while still being able to install packages when I need them?
;; init.el --- Emacs configuration
;; INSTALL PACKAGES
;; --------------------------------------
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/") t)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("marmalade" . "https://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
(package-initialize)
(when (not package-archive-contents)
(package-refresh-contents))
(defvar myPackages
'(better-defaults
paredit
idle-highlight-mode
ido-ubiquitous
find-file-in-project
smex
scpaste
ein
elpy
flycheck
material-theme
py-autopep8))
(package-refresh-contents)
(mapc #'(lambda (package)
(unless (package-installed-p package)
(package-install package)))
myPackages)
;; BASIC CUSTOMIZATION
;; --------------------------------------
(setq inhibit-startup-message t) ;; hide the startup message
(load-theme 'material t) ;; load material theme
(global-linum-mode t) ;; enable line numbers globally
;; PYTHON CONFIGURATION
;; --------------------------------------
(elpy-enable)
(elpy-use-ipython)
;; use flycheck not flymake with elpy
(when (require 'flycheck nil t)
(setq elpy-modules (delq 'elpy-module-flymake elpy-modules))
(add-hook 'elpy-mode-hook 'flycheck-mode))
;; enable autopep8 formatting on save
(require 'py-autopep8)
(add-hook 'elpy-mode-hook 'py-autopep8-enable-on-save)
;; enable electric pair minor mode
(defun electric-pair ()
"If at end of line, insert character pair without surrounding spaces.
Otherwise, just insert the typed character."
(interactive)
(if (eolp) (let (parens-require-spaces) (insert-pair)) (self-insert-command 1)))
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(define-key python-mode-map "\"" 'electric-pair)
(define-key python-mode-map "\'" 'electric-pair)
(define-key python-mode-map "(" 'electric-pair)
(define-key python-mode-map "[" 'electric-pair)
(define-key python-mode-map "{" 'electric-pair)))
;; Send line from code buffer
;; http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27777133/change-the-emacs-send-code-to-interpreter-c-c-c-r-command-in-ipython-mode/30774439#30774439
(defun my-python-line ()
(interactive)
(save-excursion
(setq the_script_buffer (format (buffer-name)))
(end-of-line)
(kill-region (point) (progn (back-to-indentation) (point)))
(if (get-buffer "*Python*")
(message "")
(run-python "ipython" nil nil))
;; (setq the_py_buffer (format "*Python[%s]*" (buffer-file-name)))
(setq the_py_buffer "*Python*")
(switch-to-buffer-other-window the_py_buffer)
(goto-char (buffer-end 1))
(yank)
(comint-send-input)
(switch-to-buffer-other-window the_script_buffer)
(yank))
(end-of-line)
(next-line)
)
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(define-key python-mode-map "\C-cn" 'my-python-line)))

Answer 1

Recently, loading packages from MELPA has been really slow, I'm not so sure why. What you can do to get around this (or at least make sure it only happens once) is to run Emacs in daemon mode, and then connect to it whenever you want to edit a file. It means that the cost of loading is only incurred once. It's as simple as running emacs --daemon at startup. Then you connect via emacsclient.