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! 😃

Ok so a couple of people have suggesting "thinking in words" instead of just letters. Very useful technique to know!

Awesome, hope they help you Injad!

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!

That's awesome, follow along and we'll see who can get to 100 WPM first :)

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.

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 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!

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!

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?

dude, 70 wpm with two fingers has got to be a record

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.

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.

Whoa....you are improving REALLY fast!

 

Yesterday I hit only 39 WPM with the correct method. Slowly improving though :)

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!

[…] been re-learning how to type correctly since February 2020, and I’ve hit a plateau of around 40 […]

[…] Typing practice. […]

[…] attempting to re-learn to type, and this podcast goes over the process and progress so […]

[…] writers we love anything that helps us type faster, and typing with your voice is a great feature in Google Docs that most people don’t know […]

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 :)

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!

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.

Your voice is faster than the wind. Use it !!