Typing faster with consistent speed feel like a smooth breeze, but it is not an easy journey that anyone can achieve through just random typing practices. We need to find out what mistakes we are doing and how we can avoid them while building a smooth curve of our typing speed.
As a beginner, whether you initially type at whatever speed (WPM), you need to understand a few thumb rules to learn typing faster without messing around, so the learning curve can be smaller.
These mistakes are usually made by each beginner who just started to learn typing on a keyboard. I have discussed few mistakes I personally did as a beginner too.
1. Looking on the keyboard
As a beginner because we didn't have any typing experience, or muscle memory we often tends to look at the keyboard to find out the key we need to press, this is a very bad habbit which eventually let you slow down and create other issues like neck pain.
So, avoid this begginer mistake and focus on building muscle memory and fixing other habits that we are discussing here.
2. No Proper Hand & Wrist Posture
So, take this seriously. Without proper hand posture and ergonomics, your hands and fingers just won’t glide over the keyboard, which will directly affect your keypresses and slow you down.
Put your hand hovering over the keyboard, don't fix it or rest your wrists from the table that wil make few keys harder to reach which eventually will slow you down. Instead if you cannot hover it initially, hover it at an angle to keep your hands gliding over the keyboard.
You will need to find a hand posture that you can comfortably hold without much effort or getting tired, while you can also access all the keys.
Yes, hovering you hand over the keyboard may feel uncomfortable at first and takes effort but with time this can feel natural.
Once you get your hand placement position right, you have covered the very first step and are ready to move ahead.
2. Right Finger Placement
There is a reason why proper finger placement is recommended to type faster.
I have seen many people doing this mistake while not keeping in mind that which key need to be pressed with which finger. I also did this mistake, you might have typed for a while on the keyboard with no proper finger placement, and your maximum speed may be around 30-40 or maybe 50 WPM with few exceptions going over 70-80 wpm, but without a proper rhythm means sometimes fast for few words and sometime really slow.
That is why the rule to put your fingers properly on the home row exists in the typing world.
Your left-hand fingers should rest on A, S, D, and F, while your right-hand fingers should rest on J, K, L, and the semicolon key. Your thumbs should stay around the spacebar.
The F and J keys usually have small bumps, which help you find the home row without looking at the keyboard.
3. Use the Correct Finger to Type
You may have had your old way of typing on the keyboard. Maybe you typed using two or three fingers, or however you were typing so far will have created some wrong finger use habits.
These old habits can make your fingers automatically move towards the keys they previously used to press, even when you are starting to type properly.
You will need to rewire your old way into the proper way of pressing every key with a particular finger. This allows you to cover the whole keyboard area properly without jumping, moving your hands repeatedly, or jumbling around to reach far keys.
Here is the key guide that tells you which finger should press which key.
At first, following this finger placement may make you slower. This is normal because your fingers are learning new movements.
Do not return to your old typing style just because it feels slower for now. Once you build muscle memory with proper fingers, your speed will increase and your typing will become smoother.
4. Ignoring Accuracy over Speed (WPM)
7. Rewarding yourself based on long tests and easy modes
While you may be doing a long test with easy modes to prove or track your progress but in real world things are a little big different. As you might have to typing long words with punctuations and symbols.
So only practicing easy words wont help you in real world typing, though easy modes is still good in the very beginning to build confidence but eventually you have to level up as you continue.
Verdict
Learning to type faster is not only about taking random typing tests and forcing your fingers to move quickly.
You need proper hand posture, correct finger placement, high accuracy, relaxed keypresses, good rhythm, and consistent practice.
As a beginner, don’t chase WPM, don’t type for too long, and don’t directly start with hard lessons. First allow your fingers to become familiar with the letter keys and build correct muscle memory.
Avoid looking at the keyboard, identify your weak keys, and don’t compare your progress with other typists.
In my personal experience, the best way to type faster is to first learn to type smoothly. Once your movements become accurate and consistent, your speed will gradually increase on its own with continue practice.
So, don’t go random while learning typing. Follow the proper technique, practice a little every day, and focus on fixing your mistakes. This will make your learning curve smoother and help you reach a better WPM without developing bad habits.
