Typin' practice

Time to talk about something quite unremarkable.

I’ve always typed with a weird combination of 4 to 7 different fingers, and not utilizing most of them. I have ten fingers, so I set out to use them. How hard can it be right? Besides, my little brother recently started doing well in his monkey-type tests, I can’t not meaningfully measure up against him. He might make fun of me.

So the journey started. With this weird version of hand gestures that I had mastered over the years, I was able to get consistently around 70 wpm, but often less. The first time I tried typing with ten fingers, it felt so slow, a mere 27 wpm, less than half of the speed I usually typed at.

It’s frustrating and hard to relearn things, for most of us I assume. Especially something so elementary as typing, I am a develop (programmer / coder) after all. All I do is typing, day in, day out.

I wanted to quit, was inconsistent, but kept at it. Often only a single test a day.

Then suddenly, one day, I hit a meaningful 40wpm after a month of going at it. I remembered being way worse, 40 wpm wasn’t too far off the 60 to 70 wpm I usually hit. It felt like there might be a future for me here, with 10 fingers being on course to rapidly overtake my previous average speed. After all, I almost doubled my typing capabilities in a month. Surely I won’t take that long to beat my old self.

Slightly more motivated, I started doing these tests a bit more consistent. Still trying to hit at least one a day, and a few more if time permitted.

Today, 3 months later than when I started, I feel like I achieved something quite unremarkable, I beat my old self. I hit 70 wpm in every sort of typing test with relative ease, in contrast to when I set out to improve in the beginning, I don’t feel like my speed is limited by the way I type, and am still making strides forward.

A tiny milestone towards becoming a better / more well rounded person.