BFranse

Learning to touch type (properly, with all ten fingers)

I type fast for a two-finger typist, but I've finally committed to learning proper touch typing. Daily practice, accuracy first.

Contents
  1. 01 How I type today
  2. 02 Why change it now
  3. 03 The plan
  4. 04 Where I’m starting from
  5. 05 Final words
A tilted illustration of a minimalist keyboard with the F and J keys highlighted in orange and yellow, next to a small stat chip reading 35 wpm and 92% accuracy.

I have finally decided to properly learn touch typing, and I’m writing this post to log my progress and keep myself accountable.

How I type today

Now, you might wonder, why? Aren’t you a developer by trade? Can you not type fast? And yes, I can. Somewhat. Around 70 words per minute, on a good day. But more like a caffeine-induced boomer on steroids, since I primarily use my two index fingers for most keys, and a few others for some far away keys.

A man hammering away at a keyboard with two fingers, typing frantically.
Me, IRL.

Back when I was younger, my parents got me a course to learn how to touch type. I vividly remember the frustration they and my brother had when I had to cover the keys with coloured stickers on the family computer. I finished the course but I guess it never stuck. I also remember my password for that course was ‘sinaasappel’ (orange in Dutch). Which is silly, as that was roughly 25 years ago.

Why change it now

I want to lock in. I’m making some changes in my life (perhaps more on that in a later blog post), aimed at improving myself. I want to take (game) development more seriously, and identified a few areas that I need to improve on.

One of which is typing. At work, or as a hobby, I’m on a keyboard a big chunk of my day. If I can make that even a few percent faster than it is now, that’ll accumulate over time.

The plan

Luckily, it’s 2026, and I don’t need to buy a course, and cover my beautiful keyboard with coloured stickers. There are apparently quite a few good, free tools available.

The one I landed on for now is TypingClub. It teaches you the basics. It starts with the home row (a through l) and expands from there.

I am going to practise for 10-15 minutes daily. There are 600+ lessons, and I’m currently in the mid 30s. I also repeated a chunk of the first lessons, to get some more practice in.

Once the basics are down, I’ll move to Keybr, as I read quite a few good reviews about how it really is able to target your weaker keys.

Where I’m starting from

At the moment, my touch typing is trash. I focus on accuracy over speed, to really drill those basics into my muscle memory, which has been typing this weird way for over 20 years.

That’ll take time. But for now I average around 30-40 words per minute, with an accuracy of over 90%. Roughly half my old two-finger speed. I know, I know, but give it some time, will you?

Final words

Like I said, I’ll be practising daily for the next few weeks, and will report back when I have something. I hope that’s not too long from now, as I really feel like a fish out of water. The first celebration is when my ten fingers overtake my old two.