Saturday, May 29, 2010

Touch Typing: The Benefits of Typing Fast in the Workplace

rapid typing logoI am always amazed at the fact that almost no job interviews, except for ones for secretarial and other administrative positions, include questions about typing speed. Together with those secretarial jobs, countless office jobs still involve sitting at a computer and typing all day, and require a person to work relatively fast.

Yet amazingly, none of the people conducting job interviews for those non-secretarial office jobs deign to ask about how fast you can type, let alone if you can touch type (i.e., use both hands without looking at the keyboard).

This is incredibly strange. It's as if it is somehow crass to ask about such a thing. Yet, if you had two equally skilled candidates with similar experience and education, if one of them was an exceptionally fast typer, and the other wasn't, surely that would be one of those "all other things being equal" factors that could give an advantage to the person who was a fast typer. But it just doesn't happen.

In fact, it would probably be considered odd for someone applying for certain types of jobs to include their typing speed on their résumé, and it would be equally as strange for the organization doing the hiring to ask about it. Which only confirms my belief that people who do the hiring often follow a basic formula and never question how they could make the process better.

The Benefits of Touch Typing

If you don't touch type but have worked in an office environment for years, you have probably convinced yourself that it is a skill you can do just fine without. After all, you are a shining example of someone who gets things done and meets deadlines. You probably type at an impressive speed, having developed your own hybrid of mashing away at the keys with your thick peasant fingers.

Yet, having never touch typed, you cannot fathom what a disservice you are doing yourself by not learning. After making the effort to learn how to touch type, within six months you will type faster than you ever have before. But that is not the biggest benefit! The most important benefit for you is that you will not feel nearly as wiped out after a long day in front of the computer as you did before. The reason is that the act of looking down and up all day is extremely wearing.

While some hybrid mashers have developed an impressive technique, and can occasionally out-speed a slow touch typer, they have to exert an incredible effort to do it. And even those mashers cannot out-speed the slow touch typers in every circumstance. For example, when having to copy something from a hard copy document into a new Word document.

Keyboard mashing chumps who use some kind of hybrid method have convinced themselves that touch typing is some long lost hope they gave up when they didn't take a typing class in high school. By maintaining this mindset, you are depriving yourself of an easily learnable skill that will make you more efficient for how ever many working years you have left.

Learning How To Touch Type

I know, because in one year I went from a keyboard masher to someone who can hit over 60 words a minute (a better measurement is actually characters per minute, of which I usually range from 330 to 400 per minute).

I made the transition after one month: one long grueling month where I devoted every waking free moment to practicing. It was tough, but well worth the benefits that have flowed my way since. Aside from increased speed, and the improved ergonomic and comfort level/sense of well-being after a day in front of the keyboard, there are other benefits as well.

For example, it is simply more professional—you will now be able to blaze away with the best of them. This was one reason that spurred me on to learn in the first place. And, while I mentioned that, except for secretarial and other menial, administrative office jobs, few other office jobs recognize the importance of typing skills, you can mention your speed in interviews as an "all other things being equal" skill that could give you an edge over other candidates.

And how shall you teach yourself to type? Numerous good software programs exist that will help you to get better. I learned using this simple yet effective little free program. Don't get me wrong, you must make the commitment, and it does take a lot of hours, but if you persist, you will get it.

The most difficult part is actually making the transition—moving from the stage where you can type just as fast using the no-look, "touch typing" that you have been practicing, as opposed to the less efficient but more familiar hybrid method that you have been using for countless years. Anyone who has ever learned to play an instrument will know that the muscle memory comes with practice, and when you get it, it's a great feeling!

Good luck!


Alex Case said...

What do you call it when you can type without looking at the keyboard but are still on three fingers???

I've tried to learn, but die of boredom each time, and anyway my brain works so slowly that there doesn't seem to be much pointing tapping quicker!

Anonymous said...

I type 600 characters per min with using 5 fingers, I know where everything is. I can't touch type, too boring and the movement responses from my pinkie sucks.. -.-

Alex Case said...

Whatever happened to the TEFL in TEFL spin?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing! RapidTyping is really good typing tutor.

Kilotex said...

After I tried using other online typing tutors, Rapid Typing is the one that helped me to touch type, albeit basically without looking at the keyboard. The software teaches you the appropriate finger placements and gives some suggestions at the bottom of the screen on what fingers to use while typing. It also highlights the characters if there was a delay in the response time. Rapid Typing has a comprehensive exercise to practice with and a range of stories to practice typing with. It has a graph where you can monitor your progress and did I say that the entire software is absolutely FREE? You just need to download it to your computer and then you are ready to practice touch typing. It makes the commercial touch typing tutors seem irrelevant to the self-help enthusiasts.!♥♥

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