Touch Typing

This article are for those who are working most of the time in front of their computers and don't touch type. This is my personal experience and I wanted to give you a reason that the time to learn touch typing is now. :)

Just to make it clear, you don't have to be a touch typist to be a great developer, writer or encoder. BUT... if you are already good at what you do in front of the computer, touch typing will still make you produce that same good work but with lesser effort and can make you even more efficient and effective by channelling those new found excess effort to adding quality to your work or by being more productive... overall making you a lot comfortably and noticeably better at what you do. Sounds cool enough?

3 months ago, I type 35 to 40 words per minute. I'm already 7 years in the IT industry and my way of doing things work for all those years, so why put an effort to touch type, right? Besides, it's difficult not looking at the keyboard. Well, that's what I thought.

About 3 months ago, I got to this new company that uses these mechanical keyboards with no characters on the keys. YES, NO characters! So, even if I look at the keys, it will not help. So I have no choice, I have to learn to touch type. I was forced into this. {-_-}

I practiced close to 30 minutes a day. From 35 to 40 words per minute (wpm), that week I went falling down to 20 to 25 wpm. That made me really frustrated, and I felt unproductive. But after a week it got better, I went back to 30 wpm. After the second week, I'm typing back to 35 to 40 wpm. To my surprise, after a month I'm nearly 50 wpm. And after 3 months, I'm typing 60-65 wpm. And the other day I just made it to 75 wpm.

But I know, this is not even the limit. My sister, types at 100 wpm. 

Okay, yeah... you might actually figure out, it's actually addicting to improve this skill. One thing this experience has taught me, it is possible to learn something completely different. I just have to be open about it OR, be forced into it. :D
But more than just addicting, I'm motivated to improving more my skills in touch typing because of the tremendous benefits I have experienced.

You see, when you work in front of the computer, what you do is type. Many don't notice, but a lot of effort is spent on typing if you work in front of your computer. Have you ever experienced these:

1. You have a lot in your head and you started typing them on your computer. You were typing slowly the thoughts in your head but after finishing one thought, you forgot the next one.

2. You do write your thoughts first on paper because your faster writing things on paper, then you type the same things on your computer afterwards. You feel it's a monotonous work.

3. You hit backspace a lot. Maybe 10% to 30% of the time.

4. You felt tired after encoding a few pages of hard copy files. You've done nothing else to make you feel tired, just copy the pages of the files. Maybe all in all, 4 pages.

Now, I tell you, these are some of my experiences typing at 35 to 40 words per minute. All of them are being addressed now by touch typing. :)
You know how touch typing addresses all these? Touch typing removes the effort of consciously doing the mechanical part of your typing. Now, don't underestimate the tremendous benefit of that in your focus, productivity, time, creativity and health. If work is a big part of your life, this skill is a big upgrade for you I tell you. For writers, it's a game changer if they have to write 5,000 words a day for their articles. For programmers, it keeps their flow of thought logic in the head intact and easily translatable into codes. For encoders, this would mean 50% to 100% more spreadsheets of reports done in a day.

Here are a few more articles to establish more my realizations.

1) the-5-benefits-of-touch-typing

2) benefits-of-touch-typing

So, when should you learn touch typing?
I thought I never needed it until I was forced to doing it.

Now, I'm reaping the rewards of having this skill.

The answer is NOW. I totally recommend it and assure you that you will reap its invaluable benefits. :)

It might be funny for others who are already touch typing a lot longer than I did to read this. I'm already 30. But that is exactly another reason to tell you to do it NOW. :)
Although it might have been late for me, the important thing is once you saw something good, you don't let it pass and you grab the opportunity and make value out of it.

Here is a good site to kick start your practice. Enjoy!