How to type fast

It's very easy; by just practicing one hour a day, you could easily enhance your typing speed up to 300% within three months. But it's crucial to follow the correct method to type. There are several typing methods available. You may choose any of them to type a document, but using the touch typing method can enhance your typing speed up to 100% than other typing methods.

Generally, we follow the hunted pick typing method that is not designed for typing fast. In The Hunt and peak method, the typist reads the source document, finds the key on the keyboard, and then presses it. This is a long process, and that's why it takes too much time to type. On the other side, a touch typist reads the source document when they type on the keyboard without looking at it.

The typist memorizes the keyboard layout and types without looking at it. Initially, this may look like a challenging process, but eventually, after daily practicing, it will habituate, and you will be able to use this method effortlessly.

The touch typing method

If you are using a QWERTY keyboard, look closely, and you will find there are small plastic bumps present over the key "G and F." Place your right index finger over the "J" key and left index finger over the "F" key. You can feel the keys and identify them without looking at them. Now place your middle finger of the right hand over the "K" and the middle finger of your left hand over the "D key," the ring finger over "L" and "S" button, and the small finger over the semicolon and "A" switch.

This is the fundamental key position of the touch typing method. And this row is called the home row. Remember, you need to get back the fingers on this home row after every keystroke.

If you are a beginner, this may become terrible work for you to follow these rules and type without looking at the keyboard. But if you practice regularly, gradually, you will adopt this process.

I recommend typing slow at the initial stage as pushing yourself to type fast may lead to the wrong key press. And this will ultimately reduce the accuracy level. I always say that accuracy is more important than speed. Even 100 WPM typing speed has no value with less than a 90% accuracy rate. So in the initial stage, you may type slowly but try to follow all the rules of touch typing and try not to look at the keyboard while typing.

How long should you practice?

The next vital part is practicing. It would be best if you practiced a lot to give your typing a shape. Different people have different learning abilities, so if your friends learn the touch typing method within 3 months, it doesn't mean that you must also learn this technique within 3 months. But generally, we found that people can learn and get familiar with this method within just three months of practice.

Yes, daily an hour of practice can enhance your typing speed a lot within just three months. But you have to be consistent and dedicated to your project and practice daily.

Where to practice typing?

Now you should know that what to type and how to practice. You can practice on MS Word or any other word application. Just go to Wikipedia, select a text document and start typing it. At the end of the typing session, just found how many words you typed and divided it by the time you typed the words.

There are several typing applications available online for free. You may choose any of them as they work on the almost same principle. But if you don't want to calculate the WPM and accuracy rate, then you may choose any typing application where you can practice daily.

But you have to remember that online typing applications have a database where it keeps the words. When a person comes to practice, this fetches the words from its database and shuffles them before starting a session.

That means here you are practicing on the same document again and again. And this is the reason many people found that their typing speed is excellent on a particular typing test application. Still, when they appear on a real typing test, their typing speed falls dramatically.

So it is better to type on your own source document. That means you may type on MS Word or any other word processing software. However, there is an online application available that offers you to practice on your own document. This advanced typing test application allows you to copy and paste your paper and practice on it. This is a great way to practice touch typing and improve your typing skill.

Once you set your fingers on the keyboard, it's time to make a schedule and practice regularly. You would never be a fast typist if you practiced for three days consecutively but forgot to practice the next day as it needs regular practicing to cultivate your typing skill.

I hope you learn something from this article. In the next post, we will discuss several factors that can affect your typing speed and accuracy rate, so keep practicing and cultivating your typing skill.