Become Proficient in Touch Typing
Become Proficient in Touch Typing
Have You Ever Thought of Becoming Proficient in Touch Typing?
Does your new employer require you to be proficient in touch typing?
There are hundreds of jobs that require proficiency in touch typing along with good speed and accuracy.
Typing with all of your fingers is tremendously helpful and can lead to efficiency at the same time. Employers seek fast typists, particularly in offices. There is nothing wrong if you are an average typist but devoting some time to touch typing and hard work will bring a skill that can serve you throughout life and professional career.
The preceding section enlists a few tips and hacks to help you achieve your target in a professional way.
1. Learn the Basics
The first step is to learn
the basics of touch typing. I recommend following a touch typing book. A touch typing book like “Learn Touch Typing in 12 Simple Lessons” will not only give you exercises to practice but will also guide you through the process. It will teach you the positions of the keys on the keyboard, how to take up to the top row and bring them down to the bottom rows. It may sound strange to have a book for learning touch typing. But it is a matter of fact that going along with a book can bring unpredictable and everlasting results. Typing from a physical page will never distract you from the typing activity but rather increases the interest to touch typing skills. The book will gradually increase the difficulty level as you go along and do more practice.
2. Practice, Practice and Practice
It is rightly said, “Practice 
makes a man perfect”. It is only practice, which turns a two-finger typist into a full keyboard touch typist. In the early stages of learning, make a habit of doing an hour practice on a daily basis for 2 or 3 months.
Learn the different locations of keys and then type from a book, magazines or any other printed material. Regular practice will not only push you toward accuracy and speed but also develops proficiency and skill, too.
3. Avoid Looking at Keys
If you fall into a habit of looking at the keys all the time, you will never be able to build the muscle memory which actually helps to type efficiently. It is true if you don’t look at the keys, it will be difficult to find them but believe me, you will soon start improving. Please note that this part is very important for speed and efficiency.
4. Hide or Cover the Labels of the Keys
To learn quickly and train your muscle memory efficiently and reduce time, hide or cover the printed labels on the keys. Don’t permanently remove, obscure or cover its labels. Just put stickers on keys so that they can’t be seen. Now print out a screenshot of the keyboard layout and tape it on the top of the monitor parallel to your eyes.
You may use software (osk-On-Screen Keyboard) that displays the position of keys on the keyboard, and you can only focus on typing. You can also buy a predesigned blank keyboard such as Das Keyboard 4 Ultimate Blank Wired Mechanical Keyboard, which does not print letters on keys and eventually hides letters.
5. Take a Break and Proper Sleep
We are human, we can’t
work efficiently all day long. Take regular breaks and proper sleep. If you feel tired, something feels like itching, eye itching or there is any other fatigue situation then it is better to take a break, drink fresh water, and take a cup of tea or even better to do a 10-minute walk. In addition to this, proper sleep is also vital for muscle memory. Muscle memory and brain work better when proper and on time sleep is taken.
6. Use Relevant Text while Practicing
To make your practice more interesting and useful, use the text which is relevant to you. It might be a book, article, magazine or any other concept or idea. The idea is that to kill “two birds with one stone”. You will build the typing skill and at the same time read something relevant useful for you. Feel free to import texts that are relevant to you, so you can type/read something interesting while building this skill.
7. Don’t Jump Here and There
Don’t go to the next lesson until you are done with the current lesson with enough speed and accuracy.
Follow a rule of achieving a certain speed and accuracy level. Don’t go to the next lesson unless you have reached that level. 94% speed and accuracy level can be considered the best for easier lessons and 90% for difficult levels.
8. Don’t Give Up
If you are an absolute beginner, for some time it will be very boring and frustrating for you to keep going but don’t give up, the end result will be good and everlasting.
Let me know your experience and techniques in the comments below, which you have adopted for learning touch typing skills. How do you become proficient with touch typing? Let me know your thoughts, comments and/or any other tip or hack you may think to be added to the list above.
Conclusion
In this article, we have learned how to become proficient in touch typing because it not only improves productivity but some employers also seek for certain typing speed.
In a nutshell, you can become proficient by learning the basics of touch typing. You may opt for a touch typing book that teaches the fundamentals of touch typing and develops a genuine interest in it. However, daily typing practice for an hour is vital to become proficient in touch typing and attain the desired accuracy. Most importantly, don’t go to the next lesson until you are done with the current lesson achieving a particular speed and accuracy. To make your typing lessons more interesting, use the relevant text which might be a book, article, magazine, or any other concept or idea that is pertinent to you.
Along with practice, stop looking at keys while typing and your fingers. Remember, avoiding looking at the keyboard and fingers is immensely influential for speed and efficiency. If you can’t manage to avoid it, the solution is to cover or hide the labels of the keys. A predesigned blank keyboard will make this task effortless and speedy.
For health care and fitness, take regular breaks, drink freshwater, juice or take a cup of tea. In addition to this, physical activity and sound sleep are also essential for muscle memory.
