Learning to type fast is one of the most important skills in the modern world. These days, everything is digital, and for those of us who rely on computers for our jobs, typing fast can massively improve our productivity.
After years of typing at around 60wpm (without touch typing), I knew it was time to improve my typing speed. So that was when my journey began.
Step 1: the fundamentals
Learning the fundamentals of typing is critical in one’s journey to type fast. For this reason, I started learning to touch type (mostly using the website typingclub). After a few weeks, I began to become pretty comfortable with these fundamentals, to the point where I was able to type at around 70wpm (without having to look at the keyboard).
Step 2: the grind
Having watched multiple YouTube videos and read many blog posts, I decided that what I needed to do next was just practice. A lot of it. Every day for over 2 months, I would spend at least 15 minutes just practicing typing on multiple sites. After trying around ten typing websites, my favourites were keybr, monkeytype and 10fastfingers, which I each used pretty much daily.
I would highly recommend using multiple typing sites (3 is quite a good number), as it helps keep you engaged. After establishing what sites you want to use, stick with them and start grinding- every day do at least 10 minutes of typing. As with everything, as long as you’re consistent, your typing speed will improve. Personally, I initially saw large amounts of improvement, however, at around 80wpm this improvement began to slow down. At that point, it is absolutely essential to persevere and type daily, even while seeing little improvement.
Now it’s your turn
Use this article as a starting point and encouragement to start or continue your journey to improve your typing speed. If you have not yet learnt touch typing, learn it! You can use typingclub (like I did) or another site. After mastering touch typing, create an account on sites like keybr, monkeytype and 10fastfingers to improve your accuracy and speed.
Focus on maintaining a high accuracy before trying to speed up. There will be times when you see almost no improvement in your typing speed- some days you might even feel like you are slowing down.
That is exactly your defining moment in your typing journey- being able to push through those tough days and consistently type for months- that is what will take you to 100wpm and beyond!
Your journey to improving your typing speed will be tough but always remember:
- Enjoy every step of the journey and celebrate each milestone (e.g. 50, 60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100…wpm!)
- Recognise the power of tiny improvements: even improving your typing speed by only 1wpm will save so much time in the long run
- Surround yourself with an awesome, supportive community