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Touch-typing crash-course with Typerdick

Many of my friends and colleagues don’t know how to touch-type. I wrote a crash-course that I hope would get more of them into efficient and faster typing habits. The course material is based on some very basic instructions and an open-source browser-based game.

The resting position

Place your fingers on the resting position is found by letting your index fingers find the two little knobs in the middle of your keyboard. Place them on these keys and let each finger rest on this row of keys. The knobs can be found without even looking down.

The color codes indicate which fingers are responsible for which keys. Do not let your fingers slip out of the designated area!

Start typing!

Got it? Ok, now practice. Do not look at the keyboard unless you need to. Always look at what you are writing on the screen. In the beginning, you will be glancing down all the time and this is okay.

A few sessions with the Typerdick game will burn each key into your muscle memory for life. Typing speed will increase along with your high-score in the game.

Don’t obsess over mistakes

Write everything down before you start correcting any mistake you may have made. Only THEN do you go back and correct it. Never obsess and correct mistakes as you are typing things it out. Correcting as you go kills ideas, productivity, and your typing speed. The backspace key should not be used until you’ve written everything down.

Messed up bad? Leave the mistakes behind by making a few new lines and start over while you are still in that good writing place.

Pro-tip: Learn the keyboard shortcut for toggling your text editor’s proofing function to get rid of any distraction.