7 Tips on How to Improve Typing Speed

Adopt a Good Posture

To optimize your typing, your back needs to be aligned with the back of your chair at a 90-degree angle. Your elbows should be bent, and both of your feet should be flat on the floor. Put the keyboard slightly below the elbow to keep the wrists straight when typing.

When it comes to hand placement, position your hands so that your left index is on the "F" key and your right index on the "J" key. The rest of your fingers should form naturally along the middle row of the keyboard (also referred to as the home-row keys). Your left little finger should be used to press the shift key, and your thumbs can be used to tap the spacebar.

Familiarize Yourself with Your Keyboard

Your keyboard is your working tool. And needless to say, as someone who types a lot, you and your keyboards must be at one.

As a result, you need to memorize each key so that you don’t even need to look down at the keyboard anymore. This will allow you to significantly reduce the time you need to type words and limit typos.

There are two fundamental layouts of keyboards:

• QWERTY, the most widely used keyboard layout in English-speaking countries, gets its name from the first six letters on the top left letter row.
• AZERTY is primarily used in French-speaking countries and its name also originates from the first six letters on its top left letter row.

A practical exercise to become more familiar with your keyboard, regardless of whether it's QWERTY or AZERTY, is to type while verbalizing the keys you are pressing. Here's a step-by-step guide to doing so:

1. Open up a blank document.
2. Choose a keyboard layout that you want to familiarize yourself with.
3. While looking away from your screen, slowly type random keys on the keyboard.
4. As you press each key, say it out loud.
5. After pressing a few keys, check the document to see whether you were correct.

By practicing this, you'll gradually build your keyboard familiarity and boost your typing speed and accuracy.

Get Your Baseline Speed

Before you start on the journey to improve your typing speed, you need to know your starting point, your baseline speed. This initial metric is a crucial reference point for gauging progress and setting achievable goals.

To determine your baseline, use an online typing test such as the "Online Typing Speed Test". This tool provides a clear measure of your words per minute (WPM) and accuracy.

Simply sit comfortably, start the test, and type naturally. Don't rush; it is not about scoring high, but about accurately determining your current speed and accuracy. Afterward, record your results – this is your baseline. As you practice and improve, use this test to measure your progress and identify areas for improvement.

Build Your Muscle Memory

To be able to improve your typing speed and accuracy, you’ll also need to build your muscle memory.

Muscle memory is stored in the cerebellum. This part of the brain is designed to send signals to your body, including your fingers, so you move them automatically without having to think about the action itself. For instance, this is what happens when you ride a bike, drive on a familiar road, or comb your hair every day.

Now, the best way to build your muscle memory is to train yourself to touch type. Touch typing is a technique that involves typing on the keyboard without ever looking down at your hands. And one of the main ways to do that is to practice on a word document and start typing any word that comes to mind. At first, focus on limiting the typos rather than the speed and keep practicing every day for 10 to 15 minutes. As time goes by, you’ll gradually improve your speed and accuracy, and therefore become more productive.

Use Shortcuts

We couldn’t write an article about how to improve typing speed without mentioning keyboard shortcuts ;) Indeed, mastering basic keyboard shortcuts can really help you cut down on your writing and editing time and increase your productivity.

While there are countless shortcuts to help you speed up your typing process, we’ve listed below the twenty more common ones:

• CTRL + A: Select all
• CTRL + C: Copy
• CTRL + X: Cut
• CTRL + V: Paste
• CTRL + F: Find
• CTRL + P: Print
• CTRL + F2: Print preview
• CTRL + S: Save
• F12: Save As
• CTRL + Z: Undo
• CTRL + Y: Redo
• CTRL + B: Bold
• CTRL + I: Italics
• CTRL + U: Underline
• CTRL + L: Left-justify
• CTRL + E: Center-justify
• CTRL + R: Right-justify
• CTRL + J: Justify
• CTRL + N: New tab
• CTRL + SHIFT + MINUS: Zooming out

You can find the full list of existing keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac online. And guess what? Microsoft Word even allows you to customize your own keyboard! Just hop onto support.microsoft to learn more about this feature.

Look After Yourself

This might sound counterintuitive, but if you spend hours writing without ever taking a break, you’ll most likely end up doing less work than if you had worked fewer hours. Or at least less quality work.

Indeed, taking regular breaks to stretch your body and clear your mind is essential to improve your productivity and efficiency. In fact, many studies have shown the benefits that taking breaks can have on productivity.

After all, the 10% most productive people tend to work 47 minutes and take a 12-minute break before getting back to work. So, even though you might not be able to apply this method to your writing routine, make sure to take regular breaks throughout the day, walking around, stretching, and keeping hydrated. This will help improve your typing speed and accuracy, the quality of your work, and your overall performance.

Practice Regularly

Improving your typing skills is a journey that demands consistent practice. Setting aside 15 to 30 minutes daily for focused typing practice can lead to a noticeable improvement.

Ensure your practice is effective. Use exercises that challenge you and maintain correct typing techniques as you increase speed. Incorporate fun elements, like typing games and lessons, to keep your sessions engaging.

Regularly compare your speed with the baseline you initially established to track progress and identify areas for improvement. Remember, consistent practice enhances keyboard familiarity, boosting speed and efficiency.