Typing speed is something that most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about. However, it has massive implications in your life. If you are slow at typing it might take you 10 minutes to type an email that should only take 5. This might not seem like a huge amount of time, but it adds up quick.

For example, if you were to type 1 email a day for an entire year that would be 365 emails. Now if each of those emails took an extra 5 minutes to type then that would be 1,825 minutes wasted or, for comparison, 30 hours. This means you lost a little more than an entire day from your year just because of your typing speed.

The specific speed you type at is referred to as WPM or Words per Minute. This simply means the amount of words you can type in one minute without making errors. Sometimes it is referred to as CPM or Characters per Minute. Usually CPM includes any mistakes including the backspaces you made while taking the test.

So, if I had a typing speed of 80 WPM that would mean that I could type 80 words per minute without making errors. This is double the speed of the average person which has been found to be 40 WPM. I’m not going to type out the math, but I’m sure you can see that if you were an author trying to write a book this could have huge implications. Imagine typing out a 100,000-word book. It would make a huge difference if you could double your typing speed.

Now that you understand the importance of typing fast let’s try out a little exercise to see just how quick we can type.

(Click Above for the Test)

How did it go?

Did you land a score of 80 or more? If so, congratulation you are among the top 90%. If not, no worries, there is always a way to improve.

Now that we’ve figured out exactly what our scores are it’s time to talk a little bit about how to improve those scores.

The Key is Proper Typing Technique

The main way to increase your typing speed is to start using proper typing technique. Most people who have never taken a typing class in school have learned bad habits for typing. They use one or two fingers and skip around the keyboard. Sometimes this works well, but in the end, it is never very inefficient.

The correct way to type is referred to as Touch Typing. Touch typing speeds up your typing by minimizing the distance your fingers must travel to hit any key on the keyboard. The idea is that each finger has its own place on the keyboard which allows you to type without looking at the keyboard. Once you are in the correct position you will be able to type much quicker than before.

Learn how to Touch Type

Learning how to touch type is easy, it just takes a little practice and before you know it you are typing like a champion.

Posture

The first thing you should focus is your posture. It may not seem extremely important but it plays a large role in your speed. To start you want to:

Sit up keeping your back straight and your feet on the ground.

Keep your elbows at a 90-degree angle

Face the screen keeping it at least 20 – 30 inches away from you.

Make sure to keep weight off your wrists. You can rest them on the table just don’t lean on them. (You don’t want carpal tunnel)

Home Row

This is the name for the row of keys that your fingers should always be over. For this your want to curve your fingers a little and place them on the keys. Your left hand should be on the keys “A S D F” with your thumb resting on the space bar. Your right hand should be on the keys ”J K L ;” with your thumb resting on the keyboard.

It’s called Home Row because you start typing with your fingers there and then always return to the position after hitting a key. On most keyboards the F and J keys have little raised lines on them to help remind you where your pointer fingers should be.

To help with finger placement I created the above image. It shows which fingers should hit which keys. With your fingers in home row each finger should hit the following keys:

Left Hand

Pinky – ` 1 2 Q A Z as well as shift, tab, and caps lock (Highlighted in Yellow)

Ring Finger – 3 W S X (Highlighted in Purple)

Middle Finger – 4 E D C (Highlighted in Blue)

Pointer Finger – 5 6 R T F G V B (Highlighted in Light Green)

Thumb – Space Bar (Highlighted in Red)

Right Hand

Pinky – 0 – = P [ ] \ ; ‘ / Backspace, Shift, and Enter (Highlighted in Yellow)

Ring Finger – 9 O L . (Highlighted in Purple)

Middle Finger – 8 I K , (Highlighted in Blue)

Pointer Finger – 6 7 Y U H J N M (Highlighted in Dark Green)

Thumb – Space Bar (Highlighted in Red)

How to Perform the Type Touch Technique

Start in the home position. When typing make sure you only hit keys with the fingers that are assigned to them. Once you are done pressing a key return to the starting position. Try to not stare at the keyboard when you type and instead try to feel where the keys are. This way you can begin to type without looking. The shift keys and enter key should always be hit with the pinky.

When you first try this method, it will seem inconvenient and slow, but as you improve you will start to realize that it is much faster than the “plucking” method that most people use. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that practice makes perfect. The more you practice using the correct position the faster your typing speed will be.

So now that you’ve learned the best way to improve your typing speed go practice it! After you’ve given it some time come back and test your WPM again to track your improvement.

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