How To Improve Your Typing Speed in 2024
For Free!
Typing is a precious skill in the 21st century. It is vital to control the computers which allow us to live efficient, modern, and comfortable lives. Most jobs require some level of typing, and many focus on entering data, typing up documents, and programming.
That said, most people struggle to type above 45 words per minute (WPM). This isn’t necessarily an issue, but if you want to be efficient and productive in any digital activity, you need to be typing faster.
If you can type faster than 80 WPM, that’s great, but you can still type faster. Many people in 2024 can type at speeds above 100 WPM. While this speed isn’t very realistic for most, we should still strive to be at this level.
That is why, in this story, I will be describing the best ways that I have used and that you can use to increase your typing speed and be a more efficient worker, writer, coder, or student.
Test Your Speed
Well before you go about typing faster, I would recommend that you test your current speed and track your progress as you go along. You can just go to Google and enter typing speed test, but my favourite ones are Monkeytype.com and livechat.com’s typing speed test. In these tests, they give you a list of random words to type as fast as you can within a given amount of time (usually 60 seconds). You must type these words as you read them.
After completing the test, the site will give you a number. That’s your starting point. This will help you see how far you’ve come after you’re an accomplished speed-typer.
Learn The Role Of Each Finger
Usually, if you’re new to computers or you just don't type very much. You’re most likely only using one or both of your pointer fingers to hunt down each individual key. This isn’t very efficient, as you actually have 10 fingers to work with. Take a look at this image.
As you can see, for optimal typing, it’s essential to utilize all of your fingers to type. Each finger has a column of keys that it is responsible for hitting when necessary. And your thumbs are responsible for hitting the space bar (pick one, don’t hit it with both thumbs at the same time).
Please note that this image is a great set of guidelines for typing, but keep in mind that you can customize your own style of typing however you’d like. Just try to get all fingers involved.
If you look down on your keyboard, there are likely some little dashes on the F and J keys. You can also feel them with your fingers. These spots are where your left and right index fingers should rest when typing. Obviously, your fingers will move around, but think of this as their default position.
While this new typing posture may be initially uncomfortable and hard to implement consistently, stick with it. It’ll help you in the long run.
Do The Speed Tests Again
And… LOOK UP!
Surprisingly, I’m not telling you to do the tests again to test yourself. I actually noticed, on my own journey to faster typing, that these tests are excellent practice tools.
When you type in a Google search, write up an email, or comment on a social media post, you already know what you’re trying to write. So what you do is that you look down at your keyboard and find each letter and hit them, one by one.
But the beauty of the typing tests is that you don't know what to type. You must read the next words as you type. It forces you to look up at your screen and muscle-memorize the position of each key, which is incredibly important.
Think about it like riding a bike for the first time. You will struggle to balance and you’re constantly looking down at the ground. However, the person teaching you will urge you to look up ahead of you. You don’t truly get the hang of it until you look ahead of you and focus on where you want to go.
It works the same for typing. If you want to type faster, you must learn to look at your screen instead of at the keyboard. An added benefit is that you will catch errors much quicker if you’re constantly looking up at your work.
Drilling these typing tests works well for practicing looking up at your work instead of fixating on what your fingers are doing. Also, since the words are completely random, the tests help you practice typing words that you usually aren’t used to typing.
Practice Typing The Entire Alphabet
While it may seem stupid or childish, I find this to be a useful strategy in learning and memorizing the position of each character and the role of each of your fingers.
Just go to an empty document and start typing the alphabet as fast as you can (in order of course). Start by trying to incorporate all of your fingers and assign each letter to a finger. Feel free to look down at your keyboard.
Eventually, you’ll want to advance to the next step, which is exclusively looking up at your display as you type the alphabet. Try to still incorporate all your fingers. Also, keep track of the characters you commonly mess up and try to memorize their locations. Each time you should be getting faster as you learn the spot of each letter.
Another way to master typing the alphabet is by phrases with many various letters, like Pangrams (a sentence using every letter of the alphabet). A great and well-known example of this is
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
This sentence contains every letter of the alphabet and is a great way to practice because it gives you another way to map out each key. ‘
Pick Up A Typing Hobby Or Activity
One of the best ways to improve your typing skills is by actually typing. Practice makes perfect.
I would recommend that you embrace some sort of activity that involves a lot of typing. This could be a video game that requires a lot of typing or text-based communication; writing short stories, articles, blog posts, or newsletters; programming; or taking notes on a keyboard instead of a notebook.
Personally, I decided to try freelance copywriting and learn Python, a programming language. I believe that these activities passively allowed me to improve my typing while also learning new skills and having fun. I also enjoy playing PC games that involve typing tactical messages to teammates.
Choose The Right Keyboard
While this step isn’t necessarily free and it is optional, I would still say that this is a major contributing factor to the speed at which you type and also how you feel when typing.
In my opinion, picking the right keyboard is a very important step. If your keyboard doesn’t match your needs, you may be typing slower than you should be.
For example, my typing really started to accelerate when I was gifted a Redragon mechanical keyboard (similar to this one). First of all, the keys all have a very curvy, ergonomic design. Also, each keypress makes a very clacky sound. For me, this is a meaningful piece of feedback for every input; however, for some, this is a noisy distraction. Finally, I enjoy the fact that each key is somewhat spaced out from the others, decreasing the chance that I hit the wrong one.
The opposite of this clacky mechanical keyboard is a membrane keyboard. They are often much quieter and have a softer, squishier, and satisfying feeling. They are often much cheaper as well. However, they aren’t as durable as a mechanical keyboard. If you find the loud clacking of the mechanical keyboard to be irritating or loud, definitely consider getting one like this one.
That being said, if you have a big focus on spaced-out keys that fit under your fingertips, consider getting one like this, with circular keycaps. They can be mechanical or membrane. I also very much enjoy the look of this type of keyboard.
Finally, the last major type of keyboard is a small, thin, and minimal keyboard (like this one). Usually, this is the standard keyboard on laptops. They are quite quiet and they require less movement for your hands. If you want your keyboard to be minimal and non-distracting, this is probably a good choice. It also doesn’t take up too much space and it’s portable.
Again, I want to stress that this was, to me, a very important step in typing faster. Not only may a new keyboard work better for you, but it will also motivate you to type more and keep practicing.
Please note that these product links are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking any of these links, I will earn a small commission. If you choose to purchase a product through my link, you are choosing to support me and my work on this platform, and I would heavily appreciate it if you choose to do so. Thank you.
Conclusion
Typing is a valuable skill that is only increasing in demand. That’s why you need to be typing faster. After following the steps in this article and practicing consistently, I can guarantee that you will see a noticeable improvement within a couple of weeks.
Again, practice makes perfect. If you stick with these practices, you will improve and become a more efficient and productive worker, student, or hobbyist.
