How I (Almost) Learned Touch Typing
Reimagine How You Communicate with Your Computer
Three things I’d like you to remember:
- Touch typing is not hard
- Fewer interruptions = better performance
- You spend 30 percent of your life on work. Make your job as comfortable as possible.
What Is Touch Typing?
This technique is called Touch typing or Blind typing. I don’t like how it’s translated into Ukrainian or Russian (Слепая печать, Сліпий набір), so I’ll stick with Touch Typing throughout this article.
Why Bother Learning It?
Right after I got my first PC, I installed a famous application from the 2000s - Соло на Клавиатуре. It was kind of fun to learn touch typing back then, but NFC Carbon and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. were much more entertaining, so I abandoned it shortly after.
I’m not saying games are the reason I failed to learn touch typing.
For over 15 years, I typed the same way most people do—using 6-7 fingers to type common words almost automatically and looking at the keyboard when I had to type unusual words, special characters, or fix typos. I even developed a decent typing speed over the years.
However, my typing wasn’t great or efficient. Whenever I looked for a key on the keyboard, I risked losing my focus, which isn’t good for productivity. The constant switching between looking at the screen and the keyboard made my neck hurt. Also, I couldn’t type in the dark.
Moreover, when using only 6-7 fingers, you may develop wrong typing patterns that will limit your maximum typing speed and increase the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome.
At this point, you may raise a very reasonable question: Why is this important? I spend much more time debugging or thinking about problems than typing.
The answer lies in how our brains work. We can’t change that, but we can learn to use our resources more efficiently.
The Cognitive Science Behind It
I’ll be oversimplifying here, but I’ll provide links for deeper dives.
First, our brains have working memory—where we store things we’re actively working on. For example, if I ask you to calculate 43 × 34 + 245, it will likely occupy all your available working memory. Your brain will even cut off background noises or events.
Working memory has limited capacity.
Psychologists and neurobiologists define two systems in the human brain involved in learning and solving everyday tasks: System 1 and System 2.
System 1: The Autopilot
System 1 handles well-known problems and everyday actions in semi-automatic mode. For example, when you ride a bicycle or wash dishes. System 1 is highly efficient, consumes minimal resources, and uses little working memory.
System 2: The Problem Solver
System 2 activates when you face complex tasks or learn something new. It’s much more expensive and often utilizes all working memory. System 2 can only do one thing at a time.
The Dishwashing Example
Let’s say you’re washing dishes (something you know how to do) while watching a TV show for the first time. System 1 handles the dishes, System 2 follows the plot. Perfect balance.
But then a jam jar slips and shatters. Glass shards and jam everywhere—even on the carpet meters away from the kitchen. This unexpected event forces System 1 to hand control to System 2, which starts creating a disaster recovery plan:
- Identify the affected areas
- What should I clean first?
- How do I clean the carpet?
- How can I find all the shards?
- Wait, I need to turn off the water!
During this entire planning process, you missed everything that happened in the TV show.
Back to Coding
A similar thing happens when you’re coding. Your current task occupies your working memory. Then it’s time to type a backslash symbol. System 1 can’t locate and press the button automatically, so it passes control to System 2. System 2 makes you look down at the keyboard, locate the button, and press it.
Sounds easy, right? But not for your brain, because this searching process steals some of your working memory capacity.
When you learn touch typing, you make System 1 familiar enough with the keyboard that it won’t bother System 2 looking for keys. This frees up cognitive resources for actual problem-solving.
The Benefits
- Outsource routine operations to System 1 and focus System 2 on solving actual tasks
- Better posture and back health—once you don’t need to look at the keyboard, you can relax, lean back, and focus on the screen
- Type in dark rooms—keyboard backlighting becomes almost useless once you master touch typing
- Increased typing speed (though this is actually the least important benefit)
Prerequisites for Learning
- A decent keyboard from the average price segment or better. Not every keyboard is suitable for learning. I recommend learning on a 75%+ keyboard. Tiny ones, like 65% or Logitech K380, have keys that are too small. Mechanical keyboards are better.
- A service with a good practice plan
- Patience
- Commitment—learning on compact keyboards like the Logitech K380 (65% size) may be very challenging. My favorite is 75% keyboards because they balance size and comfort perfectly. 100% keyboards are usually too big—I don’t like when my hand has to travel far to reach the mouse.
How I Learned Touch Typing
Here are the resources I used:
Touch typing requires precision and constant practice, even after you’re good at it.
Clear and instant feedback is crucial. Sound feedback can act as a metronome. I don’t recommend using a membrane keyboard for this reason.
Results and Timeline
Touch typing is a hard skill to learn. It took me three months of almost daily practice to learn it and three more months to type at a decent speed.
Interestingly, typing is very similar to running. It’s easy—even very easy—to type fast for 20 or 30 seconds, but then you dramatically slow down.
[Note: Original had typing speed screenshots from TypingClub - add your actual results here]
My Pieces of Advice
Accuracy prevails over speed!
Practice in the language you primarily type in.
Start learning touch typing in English, then try other languages.
The first language is the toughest. It took me three or four months to start typing in English with decent WPM and only one month to do it in Ukrainian.
If you feel lost, find the F and J keys—these are the home position for your index fingers.
Watches, fitness trackers, and bracelets will slow down your typing speed and worsen your experience.
At some point, touch typing will feel natural, and you won’t be able to type the old way anymore.
Your fingers will learn the most popular patterns—some words will be easier, some harder to type.
What I’m Still Struggling With
Is this a happy ending? Am I typing as fast as I think? Not really.
- I still have issues typing special characters and occasionally press Enter instead of the quote symbol
- Switching between Mac and Windows is painful due to different shortcuts
- I often type Latin letters instead of Cyrillic when typing in Ukrainian
What to Avoid
- Practicing on different keyboards and locations (stick to one setup initially)
- Practicing Cyrillic and Latin layouts at the same time
- Rushing through the course
- Learning touch typing for more than 30 minutes per session
- DO NOT LOOK AT THE KEYBOARD!
Should You Work on Typing Speed?
Typing speed depends heavily on how often you type certain words. For example, it’s very easy and fast to type “there are” but extremely slow to type “Pharaoh Akhenaten” or “wrestling.”
It’s relatively easy to achieve around 50 words per minute (WPM). However, higher speeds require much more practice, deeper concentration, and sometimes very special equipment. Professional typists use stenotype machines that allow typing up to 200-300 WPM.
Learn more about stenotype machines
I occasionally even tried using touch typing on my iPhone. It didn’t work well at all, and my friends were really confused a few times.
Health Benefits
Touch typing is healthy. When I was looking at the keyboard, I often experienced headaches from the unnatural neck position and frequent up-and-down movements. There were periods when I felt headaches every day. You know what Google says when you search “I feel headaches every day.”
Bonus: The Mac vs. Windows Keyboard Saga
For a very long time, I used only Windows PCs and only occasionally switched to Mac 4 years ago. I instantly fell in love with Mac’s shortcuts. Using your thumb to press Cmd is much more comfortable than pressing Ctrl with your pinky finger. It makes me more productive.
However, there’s a problem. Sometimes I need to use my Windows laptop for personal stuff and experiments with AI or new web frameworks that appear multiple times a day. Unfortunately, my productivity dramatically drops when working on Windows.
So why didn’t I just remap Alt to Ctrl and vice versa?
Well, it’s more complicated.
How Mac Keyboards Translate to Windows
| Mac Key | Windows Key |
|---|---|
| Command (⌘) | Control (Ctrl) |
| Option (⌥) | Alt |
| Control (Ctrl) | Control (Ctrl) |
Basic shortcuts work fine: Ctrl+V → Alt+V, etc. But this can cause issues, especially in Emacs.
The Remapping Problem
You’ve probably heard a billion times: “Don’t fight the framework!” The same applies here.
Hardware switching doesn’t really work because it’s only at the keyboard level. Once you disconnect the external keyboard and try to use the laptop’s built-in one, you’re messed up.
Software-only remapping doesn’t work very well either because:
- Sometimes it just stops working for no reason
- If you exit the remapping app, all remapping is gone
- There might be input delay, which is bad for gaming (even mentioned on the PowerToys website)
Windows and Linux share most shortcuts, while Mac has unique ones. When working on a keyboard, consistency is key. Every mistyping may ruin productivity and distract you. So I’ll stick with Windows shortcuts. Sorry, Tim Apple.
Conclusion
Touch typing transformed how I work. It’s not about speed—it’s about removing friction between your thoughts and the screen. It’s about keeping your brain focused on problems that matter, not on finding the backslash key.
Is it worth three to six months of practice? For me, absolutely. My neck doesn’t hurt anymore, I can work in dark rooms, and most importantly, I can keep my mental resources focused on actual work instead of keyboard gymnastics.
Will I ever type 100+ WPM consistently? Probably not, and I don’t need to. But I’ll never go back to looking at the keyboard.