Think of your three favourite gadgets. Chances are that at least one of them has a keyboard of sorts. In fact more and more gadgets needs your input. Refrigerators, cars and even TV sets are getting equipped with a keyboard. Obviously this makes your life easier since it makes it possible for you to program more and more of your gadgets to your own satisfaction. It also means you might be wasting more and more of your valuable time if your proficiency in handling these keyboards is lacking. Lets face it; the keyboard is by and large your interface to the rest of the world most of the time you use a gadget. Unless your are a touch typing savvy you have probably more than once experienced that your tweets or comments to discussion group has gone unnoticed because your typing skills were so slow that your comment ended up at the end of the time line where only a few bother to read. At Twitter and other places you can participate in a debate, most people only read the first few comments. Unfair as this is it means that it is not necessarily the most clever entries that are read but simply the entries that are typed in fastest.
To put it simple; if you want to win a debate it is not enough to be knowledgeable about the topic discussed but you have to dish out your opinion at a speed. “Should I become a touch typing savvy just to win a few arguments on the net and to make the programming of my gadgets a little less cumbersome?” you might ask. Well, there is more. Imagine you spend just ten hours at a keyboard a week. If you could just double your typing speed you could have five hours extra to your self a week. That is about 250 hours a year. If you could turn this extra time into extra earnings, and you make just $15 after taxes, becoming a faster typist will earn you more than $3500 a year. Image if you type 15 hours a week and could triple your speed (which nearly everyone can) and your income is like $30 an hour? Well, you do the math. Imagine then what that will be for the rest of your life. By now you probably understand why you have never met a person who regretted the time and effort they put into becoming a faster typist. So, if you want to be one of those show offs you meet at coffee shops whose keyboard are ticking away like a perfect Rolex,
There is a few things you should know:
- Get used to sitting up straight when you type, and let your hands rest on the table. This way you can type for hours with out straining your back or hands.
- Find the two small bumps on the ‘f’ and the ‘j’ key respectively. Always start off by putting your index fingers at these bumps. In this way you can always find your way around the keyboard. For this reason the ‘f’ and the ‘j’ keys are called the “home keys”.
- When you have found these bumps, do you best to type with out looking at the keyboard. In the beginning you will make lots of mistakes. Every one does, but don’t be discouraged. In due time your error percentage will go down and you will start to fell more comfortable with the keyboard.
When these basics are in place you should find your self a touch typing course. There is no reason to pay any money for this. There are plenty of free typing lessons for beginners out there. When you have found the one that fits you the best the only error you can do really is to give up. To find your current typing speed you can do a speed typing test online. After a few lessons you should test your self again. In this way you can appreciate your progress which is the best guarantee that you will not give up half way through the lessons. Should you choose to do only a few lessons you will still have the benefit of learning the most basic keys. Good lock.