I don’t know how to type correctly. I chicken peck. Look at this:
(this gif is like 5 years old so don’t judge my laptop 😂)
When I was young I learned to type pretty well just using two fingers, so I just ran with it.
I currently type between 60 and 70 WPM (words per minute), so that’s above average, but I want to get to 100 WPM. To accomplish this I must learn to type properly as my hands and fingers currently move at their maximum speed.
Fast forward a few months into this re-learning process and I’m typing the “right way” now:
(Me typing in the proper way 1+ month into this experiment).
Current Progress Words Per Minute:
My chicken pecking typing speed was always between 60-70 WPM. Here’s my current progress starting from scratch by re-learning to type the proper way:
- Feb 3: 20 WPM (pleased with that number)!
- Feb 4: 25 WPM
- Feb 5: 25 WPM
- Feb 6: 30 WPM
- Feb 7: 32 WPM
- Feb 8: 25 WPM
- Feb 9: 30 WPM
- Feb 10: 29 WPM
- Feb 11: 29 WPM
- Feb 12: 30 WPM
- Feb 13: 25 WPM
- Feb 14: 30 WPM
- Feb 15: 30 WPM
- Feb 16: 32 WPM (KeyBr score 54)
- Feb 17: 29 WPM
- Feb 18: 31 WPM
- Feb 19: 30 WPM
- Feb 20: 30 WPM
- Feb 21: 31 WPM
- Feb 22: 33 WPM
- Feb 23: 33 WPM
- Feb 24: 35 WPM
- Feb 25: 39 WPM
- Feb 26: – WPM
- Feb 27: – WPM
- Feb 28: – WPM
- Feb 29: – WPM
- Mar 1: – WPM
- Mar 2: – WPM
- Mar 3: 34 WPM
- Mar 4: 40 WPM (woot!)
- Mar 5: 35 WPM
- Mar 6: 34 WPM
- Mar 7: 33 WPM
- Mar 8: – WPM
- Mar 9: – 38 WPM
- Mar 10: – WPM
- Mar 11: – WPM
- Mar 12: 37 WPM
- Mar 13: 38 WPM
- Mar 14: 38 WPM
- Mar 15: 38 WPM
- Mar 16: 39 WPM (Full cold turkey switch day)
- Mar 17: 35 WPM
- Mar 18: 29 WPM
- Mar 19: 39 WPM
- Mar 20: 29 WPM
- Mar 21: 33 WPM
- Mar 22: – WPM
- Mar 23: 33 WPM
- Mar 24: – WPM
- Mar 25: 29 WPM
- Mar 26: 26 WPM
- Mar 27: 29 WPM
- Mar 28: – WPM
- Mar 29: 46 WPM
- Mar 30: 40 WPM
- Mar 31: – WPM
- Apr 1: 35 WPM
- Apr 2: – WPM
- Apr 3: – WPM
- Apr 4: 32 WPM
- Apr 27: 44 WPM
(Over 40 finally nearly 2 months later)!
Is It Worth Re-Learning To Type Properly?
I already type above average, but if increase my speed from 60 WPM to 100 WPM, that’a 60% increase in speed.
In fact when I took a typing test, my “Chicken Peck” method got me a “Top 25%” award!
However to get beyond 100 WPM, and save my future fingers from a lot of unnecessary strain, I need to learn to type correctly.
I put out a request for a typing tutor on Facebook, and my good friend Noah wanted to be the tutor. He currently types at around 110 WPM so he’s probably a good person to learn from.
This is the curriculum he made:
The Process (as made by Noah):
• 15 Minutes Per Day: RataType (teaches proper way to hit each key).
• 4 Minutes Per Day: KeyBr (shows which keys you hit wrong).
• 1 Minute Per Day: 10FastFingers (to test speed each day).
That’s it!
I made an account on each of these websites, and each one tracks your daily progress.
RataType (15 min per day):
This has been an amazingly helpful site that shows me which finger to use for each letter.
It then makes you practice the ultra-basic moves over-and-over.
It’s cool because it drills each key location into your head without having to look or even think about it.
KeyBr (4 min per day):
This site is interesting because it gives you keyboard drills, then breaks down the keys you have the most trouble with.
As you do more and more drills each day, it charts your progress and problem areas:
It’s really neat to see this kind of detailed data so you know precisely where your writing is getting slowed down.
10FastFingers (1 min per day):
This is just a basic typing speed test you can do in exactly 1 minute.
Keyboard Cover For Touch Typing:
About 5 days into this process I realized I constantly was peeking at the keyboard to get my bearings. I learned a while ago when learning to play piano it’s best to quit this habit early and force yourself to learn without looking.
So I bought this nifty keyboard cover for touch typing that blacks out all the keys, so my keyboard looks like this:
This has helped break my habit of looking at the keys while typing.
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora – Typing this super slow
P.S. If you want to watch this post in video format it’s right here:
P.P.S. If you have any typing tips for me feel free to comment below!
Your voice is faster than the wind. Use it !!
Thanks for this post, Neville. (And thank Noah for “The Process.”)
I’ve been doing this for about three months now. I started in the same place: 70 wpm chicken peck (though, I maxed around 88 wpm).
The first day trying Ratatype was a nightmare, and there was a lot of swearing, but I stuck with it.
After a couple weeks, I started with KeyBr, and that was the magic ingredient. What a great website! Having the graphs and charts show me my daily progress is what keeps me motivated, and knowing that it adapts to my ability keeps it interesting (unlike Ratatype, where you eventually get faster from remembering the key combinations). An unforeseen side effect has been a boost in self-confidence from actually being able to see my progress day to day.
I’ve been using 10FastFingers for a month now, starting around 25 wpm. I’m currently up to 45 wpm.
Full disclosure, I’ve been able to do 2-hour sessions daily (thank you, pandemic), so my progress would probably be a lot slower if I was only doing 20-minute sessions as you prescribed. I’m 40 and I partied for many years, so my brain and learning ability are starting to slow down. This has been a good experiment.
Additionally, I use Keyhero.com to maintain my chicken pecking. I noticed that as I got better at touch typing, I got worse at pecking. And I didn’t want to get stuck at a lower wpm while learning to switch over. I figure eventually it might be like knowing two languages. But once I’m able to touch type at 70+ wpm, then I’ll lay pecking to rest.
Love this! I’ve just started to learn to type properly, I’m about two weeks in, my handwriting is illegible so I’m relying on breaking the two finger typing habit so I can quickly get my thoughts down on (digital) paper and still be able to read it later on!
I’m using typingclub.com, I think it’s awesome!
Hey, Neville.
I chicken-type at 109 wpm (just used that tenfingers website to test).
I used to be in one of these nerd clubs 20 years ago that sped-typed against eachother. There are a couple things we did that you can practice that will dramatically increase your typing speed regardless of how many fingers you use to type. Shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to share them to you!
Whoa….then maybe I have hope!
Already through this experiment (which I have officially failed at), my Chicken Peck speed has gone above 80 WPM :)
Hey Neville,
I went from typing at 80 WPM with the chicken peck technique, to about 20 with the correct method the first day I tried.
I just took 10FastFingers, and I’m at 74 WPM with the correct fingers! Thanks for making this post.
Whoa….you are improving REALLY fast!
Yesterday I hit only 39 WPM with the correct method. Slowly improving though :)
dude, 70 wpm with two fingers has got to be a record
Yeah, but it’ll likely never get faster than that.
Weirdly enough as I’ve been practicing typing the correct way, my chicken pecking is getting faster because I’m still chicken pecking but with MORE fingers 😂
I hit 79 WPM the other day like that, but to be fair it wasn’t totally just chicken peck at that point.
Hey Neville,
It’s cool that you’re learning how to type the correct way. Years ago I had a bad typing style and took the time to do exactly what you’re doing now only I did it using paid software. It was slow in the beginning and I would get upset, but I stuck with it and now I type at around 100wpm to 110wpm.
I could try to increase it, but I figured it’s good enough to get the job done. When you get the chance you should check out Sean Wrona, FydaTECH and Kathy Chiang on YouTube. I go to those videos for motivation of what’s possible.
Keep pushing!
That’s great to hear Tre, because I just took a test typing correctly and only 29 WPM :-/
So hopefully a few more months of this and I’ll be at your level!
BTW which software did you use?
Do you have a typing manual? A friend learned to type (self-taught) from one-Gregg typing manual. A good refresher course at a college can help immensely also.
Hey Dorothy I don’t have a typing manual so to say, but I’ve got a good set of sites to practice on above. I’m currently in the ~30 word per minute range typing properly which is pretty slow, but improving.
Right now I just got a keyboard cover for my keyboard which will not let me see the keys and force me to type properly without looking!
How did you document your typing speed progress in your website I want to know so that I can do the same on my website
Hey Ajit, there’s two ways:
#1.) I’m just updating a simple unordered bullet point list on the site.
#2.) I signed up free account on all three sites mentioned, and they automatically track my progress!
I never learned to touch type in high school because I was going to college. I finally taught myself to touch type when I was in my 50s. I recommend the TypeFu app. It has a variety of fun exercises and tracking. I agree that you start to type in words without thinking. I am now 75 and do lots of writing for volunteer activities and although I am not up to 70 words a minute, I get the job done.
Definitely doing this with you Neville. I’m 24 and I’ve been doing putting it off for a while and have been inconsistent with it. So I’m definitely gonna do it for 20mins per day 5 days per week for all of Feb! Keep up the great work! 😃
That’s awesome, follow along and we’ll see who can get to 100 WPM first :)
So yeah you can use the “speech”button on your Phone for “writing”email even your blog post. This will save a lot of time!
Yup, I do this a lot….especially on Google Docs, we wrote a post about it here recently:
https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-type-using-your-voice/
However I find that I can’t always write with my voice, and that I write much clearer than I speak….so increasing typing speed will still be super helpful!
I was thinking about increasing my typing speed, finally got the great tips.
Thank you Neville Medhora sir.
Awesome, hope they help you Injad!
I see other people in the comments are also fast typers. :) I learned to type fast at first because I wanted to be better than my siblings, who at the time were learning for school, and then I solidified my skills by bulk typing of things that I found interesting.
I love what one of the comments said about words. Originally you’ll think of typing by each letter, but eventually you will think of it by words, and your fingers will automatically type the word without you thinking about it. Good luck with your typing, I hope you make great progress! :)
Ok so a couple of people have suggesting “thinking in words” instead of just letters. Very useful technique to know!
I’m a touch-typist writer-by-trade with a testing speed of 100 WPM, and how I learned to type so quickly without looking at the keyboard lies entirely in the internet itself: chat. When I was a kid, my parents got me and my siblings a typing program, but it was boring. It taught me the finger positions, but I kinda quit after that, since why type a gazillion vowels in a row when I could spend my computer time on forums or in Gmail chat with my friends? But many of my friends were older and already swift typists, so to keep up with them I had to get faster. Group-chatting real-time (and trying to say what I wanted before the conversation moved on!) increased my speed and also familiarized me with the keyboard so much that I can now type without looking at the keyboard even while someone is talking to me, and I still maintain high accuracy and high WPM.
That all boils down to practice. Fun, relevant practice. Texting and video-chat are the go-to nowadays, but see if any of your friends are up for some good old-fashioned chat, or drop into an interesting IRC. Require yourself to capitalize and punctuate properly, too, to get those pinkies familiar with Shift.
Thanks for the advice Cacia! I’m definitely on the keyboard enough to get practice (Slack, Gmail, writing blog posts, trolling friends on social media etc).
My fingers can’t even keep up with this chicken pecking method, so hopefully learning the proper way to type without too much travel of the fingers will get me to your level….100 WPM is the goal!
When you first start you’ll be focusing on each letter. As you get passed learning the motions, you want to think in terms of typing entire words rather than the letters in those words.
Oh good point Allen. I’m definitely still in the letter-by-letter phase, but certain letter groupings I can start to see my brain clustering them together, and hitting 3+ keys in a row without thinking about it.
Thanks for the tips! I do marketing for a living, and am a decent typist, but not fantastic ( I have a bad habit of peeking.). These tools should be helpful to up my speed. It is interesting though, the quality of my writing is much better if I hand write the content first, or at least hand outline it. Uses a different part of my brain. :-)
Oh yeah, anytime writing becomes more “costly” (in time or effort), you will choose your words far better.
This is often why old-timey books sound very different than ones written on a computer!
Loved this post! I had to relearn typing myself a few years back because I realized I was hitting a limit hunting and pecking. Thank you for sharing!
Ughh, so you know what I mean eh? My wrists and fingers literally cannot move any faster.
Also it’s kind of hilarious to see how furiously I have to type just to keep up with someone with proper typing skills 😂
Congrats on wanting to “do it right” and increase your speed. Have you ever tried speech recognition? I use Dragon pretty much all the time and I’ve tested out at around 165-175 wpm. NOTE: I’ve used Dragon for years, so YMMV.
You’re got a solid voice so I think it would work pretty well for you.
Microsoft’s and Google’s speech recognition is Ok, but Dragon is better. At least, for now until they get bought out by Google or Microsoft.
Hey Andre! We recently did a post on voice typing options here:
https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-type-using-your-voice/
…and I’ve definitely been using the Google Docs voice typing feature much more!
I have used speech to voice software a lot in the past, the only problem is the words that come out of my mouth are often very different than the one’s I type.
Also if I’m not in my own private office and working elsewhere, it gets weird to dictate words in public.
So I do use it, but only part of the time, and generally when I’m brainstorming copy.
I think I use three fingers in a way that kinda predicts where my fingers will need to go next (e.g. “fast” would be index, ring, middle, index). It works very well for me; I don’t really believe the pinky finger is fit for anything except maybe shift and ctrl. It’s a small, sad finger, you know? The only drawback is some software (like Vim, the keyboard-centric text editor) benefits from having your fingers on home row. I don’t really like doing things the way people tell me I should do them though. I have to invent my own way to do stuff just for the sake of not listening to people.
Bahaha, I agree, I DO like doing things my own way, but sometimes the reason everyone does something a specific way is because there’s a major benefit to doing it.
I’ve completely capped out at 70 WPM, and it would be extremely hard to surpass that using only two fingers…so back to the normal way I guess :-/
This is awesome. Will change your life. 2 tips. Are you musical? Having a rhythm in your head as you type is super helpful. Typing to a waltz rhythm or the beat of a favourite tune can set you up for getting closer to having an automated process. And secondly, when you have got there with automated fingers, try talking to someone while typing something else. Tells you you can do it, while also freaking people out. And is fun
Hey Ben, I’ve never heard that tip before, very interesting! I do play guitar and piano so I’m familiar, and am trying it right now as I type this :)
Hi Neville,
Great post. I considered investing the time in learning to type faster. It should have a positive return on investment.
But in the mean time, I am using Google “talk to type”
Hey Jonathan, I think any speed increase will help a bit, and also just save my poor hands from having to move so fast when I type!
We recently did a post on voice typing options here:
https://copywritingcourse.com/how-to-type-using-your-voice/
….and I’ve definitely been using the Google Docs voice typing feature much more!
Dude this is awesome. Proud of you.
Thank you sensei! Hit 30 WPM typing the real way today 😏
Hey Neville,
I’m trying to improve my “correct” typing skills as well and have found https://www.typing.com/ quite useful. You should check it out
Trying it out now!
https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english has received the hug of death thanks to you Neville
Bahaha, hope it doesn’t stay down too long I need to practice :)