How to Improve Your Typing Speed
Recently while helping my brother fill out some job applications it occurred to me that he should include his typing speed so I hit the web to find free typing speed tests. To see what my brother would be experiencing with the test I decided to take it myself. At that point I made a point to improve my score. About a week and a half later I had increased my typing speed by 30% and almost every day am still working on the increasing it even more. I have decided to perfect it for professional reasons and to complete a personal goal of mine. For anyone that has similar aspirations about their typing speed here are some key tips to help you along the process.
Before you approach increasing your speed you need to figure out where your current typing speed is at. To figure this out I would consider taking a typing test online a couple of times or you can use a keyblaze free typing tutor software where you can test your typing speed and also you can use it for practice. This will insure that your fingers are warmed up and will be able to perform more efficiently. If reading is difficult for you and you find that you can type better typing original stuff then set a minute timer as you write and then count the correct words you typed in one minute. Make sure that you can constantly think of something otherwise this will penalize your speed. As long as you have a variety of words on your mind while doing this you will likely find a comparable speed, which is what happen to me. Once you have an idea of what your current typing speed is at you can work on improving it.
Next you will want to set a goal. What I had been doing is giving myself the goal of increasing my words per minute typing speed by five words every day or so. This is more difficult than it sound and the difficulty grows exponentially for obvious reasons. When your goal or goals are met and it is impractical to make the same goal again reduce it. Now I would just be happy to be able to type one or two words more in a minute. Your goal may be a percentage or to simply reach a specific number of words per minute that you can type, this is the goal that my brother decided on. He picked a number that he thought would look good on his resume and made his goal that. It might be good to start off with a smaller goal because it may take you some time if your goal is significantly faster than what you are use to. Typing and testing your typing speed over and over again is not the only thing you need to do to reach your goal.
Before you get too deep in the typing practice verify that you are using the correct finger to type in each letter. This will allow you to assess whether you need to break any bad typing habits and what you need to work on to be sure you can type to your fastest potential. To see which finger to use remember that Q, A, and Z are typed with your left pinky finger, W, S and X are typed with your left ring finger, E, D and C left middle finger, R, T, F, G, V and B are typed with your left index finger, Y, U, H, J, N and M are typed with the right index finger, I and K are typed with the right middle finger, O and L are typed with the right ring finger and P is typed with the right pinky finger. Watch yourself as you type to make sure the correct finger is lining up with correct key. Next comes the practicing.
Once you have verified your goal and that you are typing correctly it is time to practice. Consider typing as often as you can if you do not normally get a lot of practice in your general day. Set aside some time at least once a day to take a typing test a few times, to be sure your fingers are nice and warmed up for the exercise. Keep track of your progress and push yourself to get a slightly better speed than the day before prior to concluding your practice session. This way you can feel accomplished about taking the typing test and this will make improving your typing speed less stressful. One last thing to remember is to not overwork yourself, you will drive yourself crazy taking a typing test over and over again when your hands and fingers are positively exhausted. The degree of your goal will determine the length of time it will take. Do not become discouraged, keep practicing and good luck with your typing speed.