How I increased my typing speed from 40 to 120 WPM

Typing 2–3 times faster than the average person is a good advantage. Especially for a writer or programmer. That’s why I got into it.

In the beginning, I had 40 WPM (words per minute). It’s ~200 symbols.

Now my speed ranges from 100 to 120 WPM.

How to make progress and not quit in a week

The whole algorithm can be boiled down to this:

1. Choose a service for typing practice.
2. Place your fingers and stop looking at your keyboard.
3. Make a habit (the most important part).

1. Service for typing practice

I use keybr, but you can pick any service that counts your words and allows you to customise the text.

Some programmers might want to use SpeedCoder. It allows practising typing in your favourite language’s syntax.

2. Placing fingers

This is the hardest part for the majority.

Most people don’t use all their fingers while typing. It’s okay if your speed is 30 WPM, but it’s almost unreal to type 75 WPM+ like this.

So it’s best to take care of this in the very beginning. Speed might drop down first, but it will grow faster then.

The same rule can be applied to the habit of looking at your keyboard. Don’t do that. It’s better to get used to that now than suffer from it later on.

Also, it’s not necessary to stick to the classical finger setting. For example, I always use my left little finger for shift/ctrl and pressing q/a/z only with my ring finger.

3. Making a habit

The most underrated and unobvious part.

I was surprised by how easily typing can become a part of my day.

At first, you do it because you «have to» but later… your hands are reaching out to open a tab with typing practice by themselves. And you find yourself typing having your head in the clouds.

It’s like a meditation. It’s relaxing to take some time and do some typing during the workday.

I managed to type almost every day this way.

Make the whole process as easy as possible for yourself.

I picked the simplest setting: English layout in lower case without punctuation marks.

What else?

From my own experience — you quickly reach 60–70 WPM. Then I’s much harder to grow. That’s why you need a strong habit.

My current goal is 150 WPM.

I started with this video — recommended for watching.

Feel free to share your own experience in the comments.

Good luck!