I cant learn to touch type no matter how hard i try. First i made typos now I type slow
Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#2Keep at it.
Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#3Keep at it.
Thanks
Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#4Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks
I'm not trying to be an ass; everyone you know had to go thru the same thing. That Unix greybeard wizard who types 900 wpm and knows every EMACS command? They were once in your exact position.
Seconded. Touch typing is a skill that can only be aquired by, well, touch typing. If you practice, you'll get there, but you do have to practice, and you do have to let yourself forgive the mistakes (just go back and fix them, then carry on). But resist the temptation to return to hunt-and-pecking or to watching your fingers as you type. Your eyes should be looking where the characters appear on screen as you type, not looking at your fingers.
Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#6You shouldn't care about cranking out 100 wpm. You just want the text to flow without expending much mental and physical effort.
I am typing this final paragraph using hunt-peck style, while looking at the keyboard. It is horrible, feels like going back to the stone age with no electricity or plumbing. Can confirm 1000% touch typing is far superior.
Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#7It sounds like touch typing is reducing your speed because you don't know how to touch type.
Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#8Learning to touch type takes time and practice. You weren't birthed being able to type 60-70 wpm with unorthodox form.
It'll take time to build up proper form; you'll probably start 30ish wpm, and if you spend time with proper form, you'll get back up to your old speed, and probably a little bit more. The second time you learn something, you usually do better.
I relearned touch typing in a high school keyboarding class, which was 5 days a week for not quite an hour. On some old school black and white macs, using ancient software etc. Put a file folder with one side under the keyboard, and the other side over your hands so you don't peak (fold at the back of the keyboard, in case that wasn't obvious :).
Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not trying to be an ass; everyone you know had to go thru the same thing. That Unix greybeard wizard who types 900 wpm and knows every EMACS command? They were once in your exact position.
Seconded. Touch typing is a skill that can only be aquired by, well, touch typing. If you practice, you'll get there, but you do have to practice, and you do have to let yourself forgive the mistakes (just go back and fix them, then carry on). But resist the temptation to return to hunt-and-pecking or to watching your fingers as you type. Your eyes should be looking where the characters appear on screen as you type,…
Thirded, and just wanted to say that it requires maintenance, too. I quit programming professionally and use the computer quite infrequently compared to before--my WPM dropped 20-30, from ~110 to ~80-90.
80 isn't a bad number, but touch-typing is definitely a muscle memory skill that needs exercised.
Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed
#10It takes a lot of time. Months at least. Sort of like learning a musical instrument. You'll hit a point where you slow down before you can speed up.
One mistake I made when learning to touch type was prioritizing speed over accuracy. Typing games made it worse. Try to get at least 98% accuracy first, and then you'll naturally learn speed. You learned to walk one step at a time, and need to master walking before learning to run.
Don't stress yourself out over it. That slows the learning. Just observe yourself typing. Observe your mistakes. Don't blame yourself when you do make a mistake.
Useful sites:
https://colemak.academy/ (you can set it to QWERTY and then practice one part of the keyboard at a time)
These can be really boring sometimes and you'll hit a plateau, so feel free to just get Typing of the Dead to mix it up.