Use all 10 of them

I started to write a book a while ago. A bit later my family started to comment how loudly I type. I never realized it, but when I started to listen to myself, I had to admit they were correct. Also, my index fingers started to become very sore, even though I did not use just them, I had more like a four-finger method.

I also woke up into a whole new reality, almost everyone else knows how to do it with all ten. Even my 70-year-old mum. I realized I need to learn to type with all my fingers, not just a few of them.

I printed the coloured keyboard from the internet, which showed where each finger belonged and started learning. It was so boring I gave up after a few days. Then I went to seek help from my friend Mr. Google and found out there are better ways to learn than just write words painfully slowly and hope to learn where all the keys are.

I joined Typing Club (free to join) where learning was made much more fun  than just trying it with the keychart and empty word page. I learned interesting facts, for example why my keyboard has annoying little bumps on F and J.

What I really enjoyed in Typing club - besides clear view - was that it records your attempts on each level and you may follow your progress. You get scores from each level and it shows your typing speed and the percentage of how many of your keystrokes have been the correct ones. It was so great to look back at your results and see how much you have gotten better, it is easy to lose sight of that when you go forward.

I started with a speed of 8 words per minute and in one month, I progressed into 30 words per minute, which was my maximum speed with just mainly index fingers. Now I am much faster and the best thing is that I do not have to look at the keyboard at all. My fingers do not hurt anymore and my family has stopped complaining.

Touch typing also saves your neck and strangely it keeps you more focused when you don't have to concentrate on how you type and where the keys are. Human brain is fascinating, most words I write nowadays come from my fingers to the documents without me having to think about them at all. My hands almost seem to have the will of their own. It saves a lot of brain capacity for more important things, like the content.

I warmly recommend learning this craft if you do not know it already. In a few months you can see the benefits and it gives confidence that you master one more skill in life. It saves time and fingers. It might also save co-workers' ears and keep them in a better mood if you work in an open office space.