How to Improve Your Typing Word Speed
How to Improve Typing Word Speed
My best tips on how to improve typing word speed which took me from 50 to 120 words per minute.
Your fingers spend way more time on top of your keyboard than you think. Sitting in front of a screen and writing a report, letter, or any type of document, your fingers are continually typing.
In some respects, your typing speed dictates how fast you can work. It’s like a question of walking. If you walk slowly, then you’ll get to work, home, and do errands slower than if you could walk faster. While that might seem like a foolish example, try to recall all the hours you spent sitting like a lemon typing at your screen.
Now, what if you could improve your typing word speed and type much faster? Well, the solution to that problem is right here.
Learn Shortcuts
Let’s start somewhere simple. Learning some keyboard shortcuts can remarkably improve your typing word speed without having you type any faster. I learned this trick when I realized just how much time I was wasting erasing my mistakes as I typed. If you’re like me, then chances are you’re pressing the Backspace key multiple times at every mistake.
If you’re on a Mac, you can simply press the Option + Backspace keys to erase an entire word. For those of you on a Windows computer, this can be done with the Ctrl + Backspace key. While that might seem like more work, it’s often much faster to just type out an entire word from scratch than to repeatedly press the Backspace key when you type out an error.
The Milestones
A key component that mostly everyone misses out on is figuring out the typing milestones and what you should do when you reach those levels. If your average typing speed is somewhere around 40WPM (Words Per Minute), then don’t feel too bad as that is the global average. When I first recorded my typing speed, I began at the low 50s. This range will have typists who might casually look at their keyboards while typing. You’ll want to get rid of that habit later on as you progress further.
70WPM is the average typing speed for professional typists, which is almost twice as fast as the previous milestone. In this range, typists no longer look at their keyboards as they type. Using shortcuts to delete your misspelled words should also be in your arsenal.
Anyone aiming to be an excellent and quick typist will aim to go 100WPM and beyond, in which case you’ll be typing on a completely different level. Based on my personal experience in this range, I’m constantly reading one to two words ahead before I’ve even typed them out.
Anything further than that and you’re pretty much in a league of your own. Only 99.5 percent of the world types faster than 110WPM according to most typing games.
Practice Makes Perfect
Without all the fluff, the only way you can significantly increase your typing speed is by practicing consistently. Having the right posture, getting a better keyboard, and making sure you’re sitting comfortably can massively help increase your typing speed by a couple of words per minute.
However, it’s the fun process of playing typing games that brings out all the talent and skill that comes with typing faster. Improving your typing word speed means you’ll have to spend at least a couple of minutes, perhaps 10 to 30, practicing every day. Try to squeeze this in whenever you can, like for random breaks during work.
This might feel like a chore to some people, but the secret to this is treating it as a game. I used to envision typing really fast, just like the hackers I see in movies. With that, I treated all my practice sessions like a game, and they never felt like practice all while I kept getting better and faster.
We spend most of our online presence typing away our thoughts, replies, and comments, so it’s best to optimize how fast we can do these things. With that said, here are a couple of websites you can use to improve your typing word speed.
1. Keybr.com
If you’re on the lower end of the WPM spectrum, then you might want to fix bad habits when it comes to typing. Chances are, you may have a hard time with some letters that you normally don’t type out. Keybr is a website that helps fix these errors by giving you a mix of letters to type out that emphasize on the letters you have a hard time with.
This won’t help you once you’re already in the 60WPM range, but it’s a good practice tool for those of you who are below average.
2. 10fastfingers.com
10fastfingers is a great and beginner-friendly website to practice typing. Here you can take a 60-second test with a random assortment of the 200 most common words in the English language. You can also change this variety to 1000 common words, or even join competitive races with other players.
At the end of the 60-second test, you’ll be greeted with a report displaying how many words per minute you can type, the accuracy of your spelling, and the number of words you spelled wrong. 10fastfingers does not include any punctuations, periods, commas, and so on. Furthermore, the website doesn’t even give you full sentences, but cut up words that are randomly arranged.
I personally prefer this style of practice, since it tests pure typing speed without the capitalizations and punctuations. That being said though, there’s a time and place for proper sentence semantics, and I have just the website for it.
3. Typeracer.com
Competitive, formal, and quotes. TypeRacer is a fun website that lets users compete with other players in a visual race as race cars. If that isn’t your thing, Typeracer also lets its users practice on their own, which I personally prefer. The important distinguishing factor that TypeRacer has against other websites is that it lets you write out a quote from a song, movie, or book.
This feature is the reason why I prefer TypeRacer over any other typing website, because I can discover beautiful pieces of literature along the way. Typing out quotes from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or from other movies and books is something that I love doing.
Now, typing out full sentences or quotes isn’t easy, especially since this includes proper capitalization and punctuation. With that said, it’s definitely the best place to go to if you want to practice writing out full sentences in their proper punctuation.
The Best Way To Type
Finally, one of the most common questions out there when it comes to improving your typing speed is finding out the best way to type. While you might be familiar with the standard ASDF JKL; method, however, I don’t recommend doing that. To be honest, my left fingers rest on the ASRG keys and my right hand rests on the KO[] keys.
Yes. I understand that it reads and looks like a mess when you try to position your hands in the same orientation that I do. However, I type at a comfortable speed of 120WPM despite having such a horrendous layout. Unless you’re explicitly trying to reach speeds of 140WPM or 150WPM, you don’t have to change your entire default hand layout and habits.
This word of advice is most useful for those of you who are already 70WPM and above, without following the standard ASDF JKL; layout. However, for those of you who are below the average speed, feel free to use the standard layout if that helps you. At least you still have some habits to break anyway, have a great week!
