I’ve been typing with two fingers for over 20 years and didn’t bother much about my typing skills. In fact, I was a pretty average typist with a rate of ~39wpm with pretty good accuracy of 96%, at least it was fine by me…
Then I stumbled upon an article about Touch Typing, I gave it a shot and the result was quite surprising and deluding. I was barely able to type following the rules and make to the end of the test
Worst performance ever, I typed 1/3 of the characters, with a speed of 1/5 of the previous test, with a higher error rate. I had to give it a serious try, after a couple of weeks were I was training myself al least half an hours per day, I’ve managed to reach 52 wpm, accuracy 96%:
so, trying not to think about the keyboard and the test, just taking it lightly, and going with the flow I’ve increased the speed of 33% and kept the same accuracy.
I’m still having some serious issues with the pinkies and with going back to home row after each keystroke. So I’m far for the proficient level, sometimes I tend to go back to my previous style and mixing everything and slow down a lot. Practice is the key.
These are (random, non-ordered) tips that have made me able to jump from 8wpm to 41wpm, so be even slightly faster than my previous style of typing:
- learn key position on the keyboard
- feel the bump on F and J
- force yourself to point on accuracy first, then speed
- take breaks
- never look at the keyboard unless when making a mistake (repeatedly)
- use shift with the opposite pinky finger
- avoid hitting too many times backspace
- use spotlight application instead of using the mouse
- to learn shortcuts
- buy a good keyboard
- avoid switching keyboards (especially while learning)
- train on Online Typing.org
- train on Ratatype
- train on TypingClub
- train on keybr.com
- install Web Search Navigator (or similar) to use google search without a mouse
Why not give it a try and become a better/faster typist?