Learning to Touch Type (at age 40)

Learning to type faster with touch typing.

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[LauraTryUK]

an update one year on: I am now fully touch typing without thinking about it, and my speed has increased and continues to increase. I don't need to look at the keyboard as much and I am really pleased I took the time to learn how to type properly. It was a frustrating few weeks but now I have the skill for life - speed increased, efficiency increased, wrist pain decreased. Winner!

[Dessi]

I'm 37 and I still do the "pekfingervals" as we say in Sweden. It translates to indexfinger-waltz😂 LOVE that you're back btw! ❤

[clairegiani]

This video really made me smile. Being of a similar age and had also had learned some bad typing habits. I needed to see a video of someone else growling at the computer! I growl an awful lot! So thank you for that. For context been tryping practice for approx 10- 15 mins a day for 3 months now and gone from 40 wpm to mid 50s.

[Briardie]

Fantastic! I learnt touch typing in the late 70s on a two year secretarial course. I bought a clunky manual typewriter to practice on. I was the fastest touch typist in my year completing all the assignments in exams. I could go 80+ words a minute. Not bad on manual and electric typewriters, back then. Word processors were only Just coming in. Stick with it. You get in a rhythm and it becomes automatic like riding a bike. You can guess with bashing those clunky keys, I have severe osteoarthritis in both hands now. I will definitely look at those websites to check my scores now.

[SewTubular]

In my High School typing class in grade 8, we had a typing teacher who lost 3 fingers on one hand and 2 fingers on her other hand ( she had been in a car accident long before I joined that school ), yet using the stumps of her fingers she was able to type at 90 words per minute. She was so dang inspirational. I was struggling at 20 words per minute, yet she could whiz by all of us with just stumps for fingers on both hands. ( I never complained about how hard typing was for the whole year I was in her class ) I got better, but never made it past 40 words per minute.

[veragiles]

22 years ago I gave into the realisation that typing was the only way forward for my severely dyslexic boys. Writing was so hard for them; I couldn't read it and they couldn't read it back and it was painfully slow. At the time Pitman's allowed them to go to typing lessons on a Saturday morning and it was brilliant. They still make mistakes but learning to type properly has been a huge benefit for them. As for my daughter who joined her brothers for lessons; she can hold a conversation over her shoulder whilst typing accurately at great speed. Invaluable!

[haventli]

When you said 7 days I did think that was a really tough goal. In my opinion, learning something is sometimes easier than relearning something because you don't have to overcome all the bad habits you already have. I definitely think hitting the same typing speed in one week with a new typing method is amazing. Great job.

[tedburke]

I'm relearning touch typing at 47, so I watched quite a few YouTube videos about it. This is the first honest one I've seen!
Learning _how_ to touch type is easy; Learning to touch type fast is difficult; Learning not to type the other faster way your brain already likes is almost impossible!

[kriscanmanifest]

My test on first try while listening to this video was 66 wpm and only missed 1 word. I also think my score was lower because I was trying to focus on listening to you while I was also doing the test LOL. My typing speed was incredibly fast when I was in high school when I took computer / typing class. This was great seeing you tackle this. It's also good to note that your typing speed will always be slower when you use a keyboard you're not used to using on a daily basis. Jay Vincent (a fitness youtuber) actually uses typing as an example of what he calls "the law of specificity, " where if someone is trying to learn how to type, it will be a lot harder for them to learn if you keep switching the keyboard they're using. He was teaching this to say that people who do exercises unrelated to their sport are not actually helping them get better at their sport, because their practice is not specific to what they're trying to accomplish. Thank you for sharing this and congrats on your progress :)

[silentshade]

I loved this video! You framed the progress you'd made as the real success even if the original goal was a stretch. I'm motivated now to get after my own goals

[UtmostOutdoors]

Hey Welcome back Laura! (This is the first new video of yours that I've watched since you took your break.) Great to see your style of video again! I appreciate the down to earth approach to learning and how your videos just seem like more of a look into your real life and realistic challenge rather than an overly polished "everything is perfect and easy" kind of thing. I feel oddly motivated to learn to type now! Looking forward to more, keep on keeping on!

[hugaflower]

I thank you very much for sharing this video!! I don't feel so alone, like I totally am the same. I have years of typing with one hand. But I decided to go back to school taking a business management class which requires learning how to type the correct way. This is what gets me, I will practice, then am ready to be timed, and it is like my brain skips or freezes and I miss one or two letters which sets off my WPM average to zilch( well, not as good as it could be). It is so frustrating, but I after watching your video, I have a bit hope, now. So, thank you !!! I am sure glad Youtube suggested your video in my youtube home page.

[MobaCry]

No doubt that is a very clear win...
From 41 word per minute with a bad technique, to 53 wpm with a very nice technique... If that's not a win what is it...
I am always impressed by your challenges... 👏👏👏👏😮😮😮.
You are amazing 👍

[markwilliamson]

Hey Laura, how are you? How you been? Missed you and your videos so much. Great to have you back. ✌️😀

[Indoor-Cyling-Revolution]

I learned how to type properly when, out of sheer happenstance, it turns out I needed a specific credit in order to graduate from high school after transferring around so many high schools in my youth. So I took typing… It was one of the best classes I’ve ever taken, and probably one of the classes in my education that has helped me the most throughout my life. And now, as a professional screenwriter and member of the writers Guild of America, I honestly don’t know where I would be had I not learned how to type properly. However, I was never able to achieve a consistent speed of 80 words per minute, my average is around 60 words per minute. Kudos to you for making this effort! Keep TRYing new things. Love it!

[garyinternet]

Laura, I'm late to your channel and late to this video. What a brilliant channel and well done on your progress. I learned to touch type during the pandemic in 2020 just after my 38th birthday when I started a new job in a new industry and realised how poor my typing skills were. I've become something of a typing nerd and even moderate on a forum about typing. I just wanted to say that I hope you are still touch typing. Just know that you only need about 10 to 15 minutes of formal practice per day in order to keep making progress. Possibly less than that if you also do a lot of typing each day as part of your job. They key thing to continually focus on is accuracy, i.e. typing each word correctly rather than incorrectly. Typing speed is nothing more than accurate repetitions of each word over time. Generally the people that can type at over 100 wpm or even over 150 wpm are simply the people who have spent the most time typing of the course of about a decade, but they'll typically try and tell you to use this site or that site or this method or that method. The short version is, once you've learned to touch type, just keep doing it. Keep typing as best you can and never look at the keyboard.

[debbiedann]

I love this, well done Laura! I learned to TT at evening class using the Scheidegger method which involved having the keys covered with colour coded caps so I couldn’t see the letters and typing in time to music that got progressively faster as the weeks went by to develop a rhythm and constant ‘flow’. I’m at a keyboard every day for work and still easily rattle out 80-90wpm. Good life skill!

[benmacklin]

LT I was the same and decided to teach myself while I was on shift in the army. You did so much h better than me and km still not amazing but its such a valuable skill. Well done and you continue to be an awesome inspiration 👏 🙌 😀

[tw]

Really nice video Laura and very inspirational. Best regards, Tim

[wagfinpis]

I've been using multiple apps and watching lots of videos with tips and antidotes for almost 4 months, with several hours of practice and I've gone from around 20 wpm, with 5-finger looking at the keyboard typing, to around 23 wpm 10-finger touch typing.