My M2M : July challenge complete!
Hello and welcome back to my M2M series, where every month I take on a new skill and try to meet an ambitious goal in that skill. This month’s goal is to type at 60 WPM in Colemak (an entirely new layout for me) for one minute, without any errors.

Today, on the 26 July, I completed the first challenge of my Month to Master program. On 10fastfingers.com (I switched here from typeracer.com as they offered 1 minute tests), I managed to type at 63 WPM for 1 minute without a single error, thus meeting my July goal.
Although it may not seem particularly substantial, it was a real challenge to type error-less for 60 seconds. It took an innumerable number of re-starts after disheartening double-taps and vexing mis-presses before I finally reached 1 minute without error. Even if my round was perfect for the first 50 words, one mistake with the end in sight could render my progress obsolete (I did err once with 5 seconds to go, at a speed of 65 WPM. It was massively discouraging.)
At this point I have no problem reaching reaching the 60 WPM mark. My fastest speed over 60 seconds was 66 WPM (with 1 agonising mistake). In short bursts of ~15 words I can also hit 78 WPM, with no errors. This “sprint” speed is particularly useful when typing a query into the search bar, or looking for something in finder.
I plan to keep working on improving my typing speed into the future, albeit at a reduced intensity. My goal is to reach 100 WPM by Christmas. Considering that my speed on Qwerty 1 month ago was the same as my Colemak speed now, my conclusion is that my speed has plateaued, and reached the speed necessary for daily tasks such as writing, emails, search queries etc. In order to progress, I will need to avail of a typing tutor such as keybr.com more often, and target my weakest keys, such as “P” and “J”.
For the rest of the month, having met my goal, I will dedicate it to over-learning and planning next month’s challenge, which promises to be even trickier. Next month’s challenge, as seen here, is to evolve the world’s perfect bee. I have an idea of how to achieve this goal, but until then it’s going to be work at the drawing board. All planning must be done prior to the month’s beginning, so as not to interfere with the precious little time in the month.
I’ll see you next on the 1st August, for my August outlook post!
