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Gain a superpower by learning to touch-type - Back to School
If you're a fan of life hacks of any kind and you can't touch-type, you're wasting your time. Just like the best current upgrade you can give your computer in terms of overall speed improvement is a solid-state drive, the best overall speed improvement you can give yourself when it comes to the time you spend on a computer is the ability to touch-type. I'm not kidding, and if you're skeptical I intend to convince you.
For our Back-to-School series, I really wanted to write a post about how great Gmail's keyboard shortcuts are. They really are fantastic, and if you learn them, you can really fly through your email without using the mouse at all.
But, I realized that most of the people I've talked to about keyboard shortcuts -- for Gmail and for any other application -- feign interest, then politely lets me know that they "can't memorize keys", or some other similar excuse.
The thing is, I don't believe this. But I'm getting a clear message that people aren't interested in keyboard shortcuts. And I think I know why: most people can't touch-type. Keyboard shortcuts lose almost all of their value if you constantly have to look down at your fingers to find the right key.
If you can't touch-type, then you really need to learn. It's a completely attainable goal, and it gives you a sort of human-computer interface superpower.
Superpower? Really?
Yes, I realize that characterizing a mundane skill like typing as a superpower seems a little over the top, but hear me out.
Here's the thing: If you ask people if they could learn to touch-type, most people will say yes. But yet, most people just don't. So here you've got a situation where you can set yourself apart by learning a skill that most people acknowledge is readily attainable, but don't bother to get.
Okay, fine. But why?
So why is touch-typing better than hunt-and-peck?
- Editing on-the-fly -- When you can type without looking at your fingers, that means you can look at the output of what you're typing instead. You can see problems as they happen, and fix them as you go. This by itself can improve your overall speed when writing.
- Transcribing -- If you've ever had to type something out that someone else wrote, the ability to keep your eyes on the original document as you type will let you power through it in no time. Every time you have to switch your focus back and forth between two or more places, the slower and less accurate you will be.
- Ten fingers are faster -- There are some surprisingly fast hunt-and-peck typists, but they're unlikely to be faster than someone who is typing with all ten of their fingers.
- Keyboard Shortcuts! -- Learning keyboard shortcuts in the applications you regularly use is like adding another gear to your gearbox - suddenly you're able to reach a new top speed. It really is like having a superpower (there's that word again).
You've convinced me. How do I get started?
Back when I decided to learn to type I was running Windows 3.11 on my family's 486, and my options for touch-typing tutor software was limited. I tried a few different typing programs before settling on a relatively simple piece of shareware called TTT Touch Typing Tutor. What I liked about TTT was that unlike some typing programs, it didn't let you continue typing if you hit an incorrect letter, thereby allowing you to miss a big series if letters. Instead, it played an alert sound at you when you missed a letter, and forced you to hit the correct letter before it would allow you to continue. That way, your score isn't artificially lowered by typing one letter off, and more importantly it interrupts a bad habit (hitting the wrong letter in a pattern) and helps replace it with the right habit (the right letter).
While it's been awhile since I've needed to use typing tutor software, the good news is that there are infinitely more options available than there were back when I was learning. Even a quick Google search turns up a bunch of promising links, one of which is All the Touch Typing Tutors. This site aggregates and provides summaries for freeware, and shareware typing tools for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and provides a list of online tools.
I recommend trying a few, and using the one you enjoy most, but keep in mind that it should be one that stops you if you hit a wrong letter, and forces you to hit the right one to continue.
When am I going to find the time to learn?
If you're in school, the answer is "right freakin' now". I'm not kidding. Find 10 to 15 minutes every day, maybe at the beginning of each of your study sessions. [I was forced to learn touch-typing when I was 12. It was the single best thing I learnt at school! -Ed]
If you've got a 9 to 5 job, consider asking your boss if you can spend 10 to 15 minutes per day working on your typing speed for a month. They might be willing to go for it, since it's an investment that will payoff in terms of increased productivity, and it costs them nothing except a bit of your time. If they say no, consider just using your coffee break, or showing up to work 15 minutes early and doing it then.
Like any skill that you repeatedly practice, you're going to surprise yourself with how much progress you can make in the space of one short month, if you really commit to it. You will eventually reach a point where typing without looking becomes fun, and your speed will continue to improve just by continuing to use your new-found superpower.
Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsaaronAug 31st 2010 1:11PM
I am learning dvorak after years of qwerty
WinterTigerAug 31st 2010 1:03PM
I don't 'touch type' in the fashion they taught back in grade school, i.e. home row and all that, but I don't have to look at the keyboard, use all fingers except my thumbs which stay on the spacebar, and can usually keep up with or beat most touch-typists I know at real world typing tasks. Guess it all comes down to how you learned, I just learned by doing I guess, and find that I have the key positions memorized to where I can brush my index fingers over the 'F' and 'J' and know exactly where my hands are and what keys my fingers are currently over, without looking once. I'll go take a speed-test later when I'm not as busy and post it as a reply for anyone who's interested.
PaulAug 31st 2010 1:19PM
I've been touch-typing for a long time now. Usually keep my fingers near the home-keys, but don't actually keep my fingers on them, it's just a place to reset to before continuing on. Especially because my current keyboard has these 2 really well defined index finger bumps (or whatever they're called).
What I find really frustrating, however, is when I move to a different keyboard, or worse yet, laptop. Suddenly I have to look down at the keys, when I realize I've just moved the cursor up or down the entire page, and other fun things like that.
0rangeJuliusAug 31st 2010 2:17PM
I think, more accurately, people aren't interested in TYPING. The words, sentences and even paragraphs continue to get shorter (from MySpace to Twitter in a short time). People cut and paste nowadays, they don't type. Shortcuts, therefore, have less importance now.
MaikonAug 31st 2010 3:40PM
I've learning with Super Mario.
Mario Teaches Typing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVtw-ctzA7Q
LorenAug 31st 2010 5:34PM
I touch-type, but keyboard shortcuts are still a hassle for me. It's easier and faster to click a button than to memorize which arcane combination of keys will get me the effect I'm looking for. About the only ones I have memorized are the very basic cut/copy/paste, italics/bold, etc.
criminalSep 1st 2010 12:43AM
i decided that it wasn't a good look to be the go-to guy for computer fixin's and not know how to type, so several years ago i got myself a copy of "typing of the dead." i was a big fan of hotd in the arcade and decided it was worth beating one more time. i was surprised how accurate i was not looking down and really went with it. it didn't take long to hone the skills and i did my duty in slaying the undead with my arsenal of keystrokes. win/win
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuxlPhks2UY
PhilSep 1st 2010 3:15AM
If your at work or don't want to install any software this website seems half decent (I'm only on lesson three so I don't know beyond that)
http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/tutor/index.php?lang=EN
JeffSep 1st 2010 1:41PM
I had a few requests for a typing tutor here at work, and ran across a nice bit of free software called "QuickQUERTY" that I run on our intranet web server:
http://quickqwerty.sourceforge.net/
JonSep 4th 2010 11:29AM
I'm a little confused at how people can not touch type in the digital age. Maybe that's part of why some people have such poor grammar and spelling on blog comments, forums, etc.? Of course, I am a programmer and work mainly with other programmers, so I'm biased. But even some programmers don't learn much about the joy that is shortcut keys. Especially in Visual Studio, almost everything can be done with a shortcut key, either by default or if you go hook it up yourself.
If you're interested in forcing yourself to learn shortcut keys, I found that Keyboard Jedi was pretty useful. It disables your mouse so you have to use the keyboard (you can turn it off of course).
http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2007/06/03/train-to-be-a-keyboard-master-with-keyboard-jedi.aspx
I found that on some computers Keyboard Jedi doesn't work (I think it's a 32 vs. 64 bit thing, but I'm not sure). So I wrote my own replacement called Keyboard Sith. It doesn't have the exact same feature set, but does allow you to disable the mouse. If Keyboard Jedi doesn't work for you, or you just like the thought of being an evil Sith, you can try out Keyboard Sith.
http://mythicant.com/2010/06/30/become-a-keyboard-sith.aspx
lassiSep 15th 2010 9:39AM
we had touchtyping in elementary school. well, it was called just typing and oriented more around secretary life. so, good amounts of doom on outdated desktops and 10/10 on every test. in retrospect, I guess it would have been beneficial if me and couple of other guys would have been given free computer time instead of assigning us a 'teacher' who didn't understand computers and so wanted us only to do typing excercises and not play doom and mess around with the network, but that's not how elementary schools roll where i grew up.
really though, good typing skills are essential in the modern world, but nobody trains them anymore since a typist is not an occupation anymore.
NeoOct 9th 2010 6:27PM
There are free online touch typing lessons at http://www.typingstudy.com with games and speed tests.