Productivity

Seventeen or fourtyfive, in both cases chances are high you spend a decent amount of time infront of the computer every week.

In a way it is alarming how much screens and the digital world in general have infiltrated and invated our day to day lives. A good topic for a future post. In this one though I'd like to cover the topic of touch typing: Ten finger typing without the need to look down on the keys.
Now you might think this kind of stuff sounds a bit nerdy and it definitely can be. At the same time though I believe many people could benefit from improving their typing speed. It really is a game changer. So let's take a deeper look.

It's not about becoming a writer

Let's get the misconseptions out of the way. For you to be interested in increasing your typing speed you don't have to be a programmer nor do you have to aspire to become an author. At least sort of. Because the truth is, you already are an author! Think about it. If you were to add up everything you have ever digitally written how much do you think that would be? And where do you expect this number to go in the future? As soon as we add time to the equation it quickly becomes clear: We all write a lot. From emails to google searches and for many people everything else they do at work or school, the occasions in which pen and paper are left behind is increasing every year. And without judging whether that is good or bad we just cannot ignore: Inefficient typing is simply wasting life time.

Advantages

• Reduction of latency between you thinking of something and the computer executing upon it
• Much more ergonomic by allowing yo to uphold a proper posture
• Focus on the actual task rather than searching for the next keys to press
• Engagement of all fingers making sure you don't waste their potential and future generations don't end up with only two fingers!!!
• Saves time that can be invested elsewhere
• Exponential expansion of your possibilities in the digital world by allowing you to make proper use of it
• Reduces the friction of getting to work
• Encourages using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse which is much more efficient
• Creates a basis for future learnings such as coding
• Makes using the computer much more fun and seemless
• Is the basis for you to start better understand your digital environment, adjust it to your needs and as a result become more efficient, effective and productive
• If you do aspire to become a writer or creator of any sort, this is where your creative journey begins

How to get started

There are lots of different ways of learning how to touch type. The method I used was very straight forward, cost me as little as eight quid, was fast and made the entire process so much fun that it got to there point where I was definitely spending way too much time on practicing.
To get started I used a tool called TypingAcademy which is essentially just one of many different typing courses out there. Here, I learned all the basics like finger placement and also began developping muscle memory. You can start off for free but after a couple days of standard practiced I myself immediately upgraded to the premium subscription. It costs roughly eight quid per month, gives you unlimited access and from my experience does a really good job of giving you an entry into the world of ten finger typing. After a month or so you can just cancel the subscription and continue with free practice tools. Here the most common ones are 10FastFingers where you type random strings of words and TypeRacer where it is actual text snippets from books and films. Sure, there are other tools as well but why overcomplicate things.
And that's basically it. Now it is just practice. Stick to these tools, remain patient and trust that with practice comes improvement.

Conclusion

Young or old, today we all spend lots of time in front of the computer. The keyboard is the way we interact with it and so improving our typing capabilities means we can better operate our machines. This allows us to go never before seen lengths, be more productive and focus on the things that truly matter.

But what about you, how many words per minute can you bash out on your board?

1. Learn the basics on www.typing.academy
2. Continue with 10FastFingers and TypeRacer
3. Keep practicing!

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