How to learn touch typing quickly (my story)

There is no doubt that touch typing (Wikipedia) - a way of typing on the computer keyboard without looking - is much faster than the visual hunting for the right keys. Imagine how much more you could achieve if you typed faster. I will share my story how I learned this in two weeks.

TL, DR: Just do it.

Back in 1996, when I studied computer science at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, some American (don't remember the name, it was something like Mike) has organized a computer room at the university with Internet access. This was a big deal back then. Most people with computers had only BBS access using the slow modem devices. I was immediately hooked and spent time in the room almost every day.


One day I saw a tech guy who helped organizing the Internet room there when he was fixing one of the regular connection issues. We called the guy a "hacker", not in a sense of breaking security, but in a sense of being a true expert. I believe he was one of the first people to organize and build Internet access in Ukraine.

I was so impressed with the speed he was typing on the Solaris terminal! It was like in the movies, but in real life. From that moment I decided I would learn touch typing because I wanted to be like him.

If you have tried touch typing already and gave up - I understand you. I have been using computers for four years by then and was able to type relatively fast for a visual typing. But when I stopped looking at the keyboard my speed dropped ten times. This is the actual challenge - persist typing slower than you used to and refrain from looking at the keyboard. It only took me two weeks. After two weeks I regained the speed I had and continued improving the typing speed further.

I'm thankful to this hacker for inspiring me, even though he likely did not notice my existence. Notice that I have not used any training software or did anything extraordinary - I kept using my computer like I always did, but never looked back at the keyboard.

Just two weeks and you will be more productive for the rest of your life.


P.S. Back then I was typing on the early inconvenient keyboard which looked like this.

I'm very glad this monster is not usable anymore. Since many years I use Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and recently switched to the newest and latest Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard. It's looking so cool that I feel the urge to type some more. It's just a pleasure to type on it. Try it for yourself. Check it on Amazon. It has the best reviews.