Bahaha, hope it doesn't stay down too long I need to practice :)

https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english has received the hug of death thanks to you Neville

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!

Dude this is awesome. Proud of you.

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"

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

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.

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.

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!

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. :-)

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!

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 :)

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 :-/

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.

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 😂

Thank you sensei! Hit 30 WPM typing the real way today 😏

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 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!

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.

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!

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! :)

I was thinking about increasing my typing speed, finally got the great tips.

 

Thank you Neville Medhora sir.

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!