I’ve been practicing my typing a lot lately; here’s what I’ve got so far.

  • Regularly practicing piano scales, arpeggios and triads has increased my overall and burst speed by at least 10 wpm.
  • Finger strength exercises are critical, especially when using a layout like Colemak, where the rolls (first) and skip-rolls (ast, tra, etc.) can easily trip up weak ring and pinky fingers.
  • I like to use the following exercise, which I learned as a child from an old Russian piano exercise book. Hold down any three fingers, and alternate presses with the other two. My favourite permutation is to hold 124 (thumb, index and ring) and let 35 (middle and pinky) vary. Try with both hands simultaneously, and see if you can keep your fingers synchronized without lifting your ring fingers.
  • I still cheat occasionally and hit Q with my left ring finger. Maybe I haven’t been practicing the above exercise enough.
  • Always look a word ahead.
  • Prioritizing speed at the expense of accuracy is a great way to calcify bad habits. Sometimes I can eke out a slightly faster score if I tense my hands up, but this generally ends up hurting me in the long run. I usually type best when barely feathering the keys. Imagining a sort of digital flow state helps.
  • I’ve set myself a fairly ambitious stretch goal this year: hitting 200 wpm on a 15-second test. I probably won’t reach this.
  • There will always be someone faster than me, and that’s okay. My only real competitor is myself.