My path to improving my typing skills
Tags: writing, devjournal, productivity, typingspeed
Published: 2021-07-16 00:24:44

---
title: My path to improving my typing skills
published: true
description: How I am learning to speed up my writing
tags: writing, devjournal, productivity, typingspeed
cover_image: https://media.giphy.com/media/aNqEFrYVnsS52/giphy.gif
---
# 📖 A little bit of my background

When I was in college. I read a book called 📗**Competitive Programming 3**📗 written by *Steven Halim* and *Felix Halim*, on the tips section they said:

>Try this typing test at http://www.typingtest.com and follow the instructions there on how to improve your typing skill. Steven's is ~85-95 wpm and Felix's is ~55-65 wpm. If your typing speed is much less than those numbers, please take this tip seriously!

I tried this advice but ended up getting more confused. I was a beginner

On my ~5 years of college I reach ~32 WPM, that was fast for me and I don't see the need of increase my speed

![I don't care](https://media.giphy.com/media/G5X63GrrLjjVK/giphy.gif)

# 😷 The impact of COVID

On 2020 many companies has switched to remote work (that was my case) and it was time to **use time well**, learn something new or master some I already had. In some point the work was overwhelming, with 10 to 12-hour workdays and some sleepless nights 🤯

![Sleepless](https://media.giphy.com/media/ZEOS3YX3oX6nuKcqFE/giphy.gif)

To make matters worse, back and hand pain began to appear!

# ⌚ Time to get solutions

A right chair and some pillows solved the back problem, but 1 problem still persist, hand pain and if I tried to write fast, the pain returned o worsend.

I should clarify that my fast typing was 😅**35 WPM**😅 so it was a lot of effort with little or no benefit

The year 2021 has arrived and I decided to retake the course proposal by Steven and Felix Halim 💪🏼💪🏼 and this was my progress:

---
## Lesson 1
![Lesson 1](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/19jfnri6cmac372r45zb.PNG)

As you can see, with all the new technique: "_home row_", correct finger position, and all the ergonomics, my speed drops dramatically to **~9-16 WPM**

Type in the computer has never been so difficult 😅

---
## Lesson 2
![Lesson 2](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/4ph9yafwwcr8d65uktxx.PNG)

With much effort I reach **~25-35 WPM**, it's almost my normal speed 😫

---
## Lesson 3
![Lesson 3](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/rld7hjmz88cfzq4ph9ec.PNG)

After a week of 9 to 10-hour workdays (because the work cant's stop) I recovered my normal speed of **~21-39 WPM**

---
## Lesson 4
![Lesson 4](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/3tbllax2tjrl1qb8w529.PNG)

I decided to practice the new technique for 2 weeks, after that I went back to the Lesson and the result was awesome 💪🏼. **~24-45 WPM**

---
At this point 🤔 I realized that writing code sentences in my code editor was more difficult than writing a simple sentence in a text editor like Word. This is because _coding_ requires special characters like **[], {}, ''**, etc.

I'm from Bolivia (South America), so I have always used a _**spanish**_  keyboard layout

![Spanish Keyboard](https://tecnovortex.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/kb-spanish.png)

As you can see, the special characters a little more effort to type them

As an alternative I found a Latin American keyboard layout based on the previous one

![Latin American Keyboard](https://tecnovortex.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/kb-latinoamericano.png)

It seems a bit more comfortabble but, I was not completely conviced

In this [post](https://www.mediavida.com/foro/dev/teclado-ingles-mas-comodo-para-programar-640372) and (many others) I found that the best option for programming was the English keyboard layout. Great!
but how can I deal with Spanish words and the **"ñ"**? (_improvised jazz music in the background xD_)

![Thinking](https://media.giphy.com/media/lKXEBR8m1jWso/giphy.gif)

In the comments of the same post mentioned above, I discovered that an English keyboard layout can be extended to international layout!

![English International Keyboard](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/v38vguuysbzxijes0zil.png)

Great That's it!. It's time to re-learn my typing technique.

---
## Lesson 8
![Lesson 8](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/qib2bir9t9v6m4xdils9.PNG)

That decision (the best one by the way) slowed me down a bit.

---
## Lesson 13
![Lesson 13](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/embpx3c14vzd5r0eeccj.PNG)

Eventually after almost 2 months of practice, I regained the writing typing speed gained 😃

---
## Final Test (1st Section)
![Final Test](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/yrslrmju4zlu9g6zmxd5.PNG)

And not only have I regained my typing speed. I have beaten my record!

**57 WPM!!** I don't believe it

![Surprised](https://media.giphy.com/media/Nm8ZPAGOwZUQM/giphy.gif)

Currently, July 2021. This is my record on https://play.typeracer.com/ 

![Typing record](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/tt5w0s9ur62ue10jur5i.PNG)

At the moment my typing speed is **~49-59 WPM**

# 📚 Conclusion

This is the beginning of the habit of constantly practicing typing speed.

### **What is my goal?**

Well, typing speed is not everything in software development (_see this video from [freeCodeCamp Talks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uoKT-g0oLs&t=1484s)_). I still have a long way to go to become a great senior developer, for now I'm just an aspiring mid-level developer, and typing speed is one tool to get there

Watch these awesome videos related to this topic:

* [How I Type REALLY Fast (156 Words per Minute)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ArVtCQqQRE&t=9s)
* [[Typeracer] 287/325 WPM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrawhjoBmQs)
* [323 WPM Race on Typeracer; 306 Registered](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0YI_f1CEhY)

## Thanks for reading!

🔗 Let's connect! [Twitter](https://twitter.com/KievAndresMRV) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kievandres/)