If you are not familiar with it, touch typing is the ability to type with all your fingers and without the need to look at the keyboard as you go. Many people learn it during their school days, but many don’t. Those who don’t tend to use only two fingers to type, and some even need to look for the right key before pressing it.
Until last week I used to type with only two fingers as well. I was not bad with it (averaging 65 words per minute or so), but still I felt that it was necessary to switch to touch typing. Why? Because typing is where we spend most of our time these days, and even small improvements on your typing speed will translate into huge productivity gains.
Suppose that you spend three hours per day typing. That is around 15 hours per work week, 60 hours per month and 720 hours per year. If you increase your typing speed by 30%, you would gain 216 extra hours of work every year. That is a lot.
If you are convinced, here are some resources that I found while trying to learn touch typing. The first one is a test to see how fast you can currently type: speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com. This one is useful to track your progress.
For the learning part I used this site: typeonline.co.uk. It comes with five basic lessons that will teach you the basics of touch typing, including all the finger positions. Each lesson also comes with ten exercises that you can use for practice.
Now the trick is: once you know the positions and can type with all your fingers without looking at the keyboard, albeit slowly, you need to make the switch and never return to typing with two fingers again.
In the beginning you will feel miserable, but this is the only way to go. For example, with two fingers I was able to type 65 words per minute, and as of today with touch typing I am down to 30 words or so. It is a pain, but I am sure that within 2-4 weeks I will be back to 65 words per minute, and hopefully within some months I will be able to increase it to 100 words per minute, which is considered to be pretty fast.
If you are still typing with two fingers, make an effort to learn touch typing. I am sure it will be worth it. For the rest of you guys who already touch type, what is your wpm (words per minute) speed?
I type using two fingers. Even now I am doing it.
Online typing test tutorials will help you learn the basic keystrokes. Tips for success. Do not look at the keyboard not even a quick peek!
Hi Zida,
I am 21 years and i just started learning touch typing online 4 weeks ago.I do it 1 hour per day and now i can do 15wpm with 94% accuracy.
There are questions i usually ask myself which when unanswered can make me give up in touch typing.
I would recommend anyone to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout. I am shifting from Qwerty to Dvorak, my friends use Dvorak and find it much faster and is RSI safe.
Using AIM client voraciously as a teenager also helps no end – although I’m still a little patchy now!
Isn’t it easier to press ‘x’ with middle finger than with ring finger when stretching fingers from home row?
Hi Computer users,
Personally I get around 80-90 WPM and I generally tend to use the two fingers approach but modified for three fingers in my own unique way withouy looking at my keyboard or thinking about it.
Hi Presley 8792,
touch typing is typing with all fingers and by looking into the monitor, your’s is search typing i.e. typing by looking into the keyboard.
Learn the art of touch typing and enjoy working on PC.
touch typing, with looking at the keyboard!
I swear to god:
I can type 84 words per minute (according to this speed test) with just two fingers. Yes, just two fingers.
Hi,
This is World’s No.1 PC typing Expert and Limca Book Record holder – H.M.Arun Kumar. Please guys learn the art of touch typing and enjoy working on PC.
Well,my dad put me into a typing class and i didnt even have the power to hit the keys(Yes,i’m talking of good ol’ typewriting machines) but yes i definitely dont regret it.
that was fun.. i can type:
331 characters per minute
65 correct words
0 wrong words with my 10 fingers..
I’m just like you, typing around 62 words per minute with two and sometimes three fingers if I concentrate.
Touch typing was the most useful class I ever took in high school….a long, long time ago. On a good day I can hit 130-140 wpm. It has made a world of difference in my work as a journalist.
Wow. I think 65 words per minute is astonishing with 2 fingers. That is about my touch typing speed and that’s on a good day.
@Tomas, we were talking about words per minute, not characters.
I don’t want to brag, but I can type 189 characters per minute according to speed test. In my native language my score is over 200… I am using my hybrid style of typing, but I am looking forward to master touch typing. Thanks, for tips.
I took the test. 56wpm. Typing one-handed with a baby in my arms.
I look the test 3 times and actually got worse:-) Started at 31 words and ended up at 27 (twice). Boy, 65 using 2 fingers – that is fast… why would you bother learning touch typing.
I totally agree. I’ve been grateful for years that my parents forced me to take a typing class in high school (circa 1985), and even though my Dad was a programmer, not even they expected keyboards to be such an important part of my life. I can’t imagine how much longer it would take me to do EVERYTHING if I couldn’t touchtype. And, well, okay, I may cheat a little for the extra characters like ^, *, #. The ones that I don’t use often. And I’d rather type numbers on a number pad any day, than use the ones above the letters. But, still. Typing is soooo much easier this way!
I totally agree. One the best decisions I made at college, was to take a typing course in the first term. It’s been a great benefit through my career.
Hi Daniel –
Man I wish I could touch type – it’s taken me 6 minutes to write this!
Thank you for this article.
I’ll try to increase my typing speed with these lessons.
(For the moment, it’s around 31 wpm… I have some efforts to do )
I could reach just up to 50 wpm However, will try to improve myself..
Oh, so that’s what they call it? Touch typing??? Hahaha. Cool. I’m actually good at it! Especially in usernames and passwords…
Learning to type is the first thing I learned when I started in the transcription industry, I really helps in blogging too.
I’m bad at typing! I should practice more.
You hunt and peck this entire thing that is too much! I learned touch typing a long time ago. It wasn’t that hard just took a few months. Just have to learn where the keys are. We had to take classes in school!
59 wpm on that speed test site just now, but thats with my laptop which I always type a bit slower on because of the smaller keyboard.
98 wpm. Touch typing is so worth learning.
I agree! touch typing saves loads of time.
I use all my fingers, but I still need to look at the board every now and again. I type aound 70 words a minute. But like mentioned above plue copy and pasting url’s.
I learned touch typing around age 9. I can type about 70 words per minute. It’s second nature to me, so I never look at the keyboard. I do admit that switching to a Mac threw me off, so I have had to learn this keyboard style and learn how to switch back and forth. Some buttons aren’t where I expected them to be!
My mother forced me to learn touch typing when I was 10 years old by putting me in summer school. I hated it every step of the way. While my friends played all day I was sitting in summer school. Today and throughout school I’m very glad I learned to touch type at such an early age.
I learned to type before people landed on the Moon. I can type 110wpm easily. Yes, it’s miserable while you’re learning, because for the first few weeks the hunt-and-peck method you’ve used is faster, but once you get all your fingers flying over the keys you’ll never go back.
I’ve been able to touch type since I was in school and I often wonder how others deal with typing so slow. I’m glad you decided to learn how to do it!
That was fun.
I had an awesome typing teacher in school and use that skill every day — 75 wpm according to that speed test site.
53 words correct, 4 wrong, 2 fingers.
I have not tried before.
I look at keyboard when I am typing most of the time. Looks like I will need to learn touch typing!
Oh man, this is one of my regrets, to be sure. I’m no two-finger tapper – I involve nearly all of my fingers in my funky hybrid hunt-n-peck technique – but even at my best, my speed is only fair.
I type 45-50 words a minute two finger style. it’s my thing, and I’m sticking with it.
Quite impressive that you could write all these articles with only two finger typing. I work in IT and have several coworkers that cannot type worth a dime. I don’t see how they get their jobs done.
90-105 wpm depending on the day. Minus the time it takes to cut and paste links when blogging