Dear god, just take me now...

[Ninja]

I've skipped ahead on one of my newyears resolutions, learn how to type with ten fingers and not two (and look like a chimpanzee while doing so). Problem is, I love to write. Writing is my LIFE! Thats why I want to learn how to properly use my keyboard. It should be faster and give me a few extra writerly coolness points to boot. *high-pitched valleygirl voice* "Hey, dig me! I'm, like, writing at, like, warpspeed!"

Monday, I've started training a few hours ever night with a cd-rom and today learned the final keys (and lost feeling in my right pinky...). Now the program gives me text to type over to increase my speed and accuracy. If I grit my teeth and keep on hitting those keys every night, I should eventually regain my old typing speed. But I have idea's floating around in my head now! I want to write and get back in "the zone", which is pretty hard at my current speed. It's like having to learn how to walk again.

I'm tempted to "cheat" and write "just a few pages real quick" with my indexfingers, but I'm afraid that will harm the progress I made. What can I do? Cheat? Abstain from writing for a week (I can't be creative at this low speed!) until I finished all speed improvement lessons? Drink a mix of coffee and red bull so I can keep going all night and up the tempo?

Someone! Anyone! Give me the strengt to actually finish learning a new skill and not half-ass my way out of it again!

[Spiritual]

Well I'm quite a fast ten finger typist. I did a course when I was younger on the old typemachines. Been the best thing I've EVER done.

Anyways what I did months after I learned it, when I was thinking I would type the words with my fingers in the air. It was quite weird actually, cause it was so habitual.

What I would recommend you to do is to learn to find all the letters of the alphabet blindly first. When you know where to find all the different letters you can start to form words, in the beginning you will make the words quite slowly, but after a while you become like an automatic dictionary. Nowadays I don't think about the keyboard anymore, it's become an extension of my brain now. Often I will type a different word that I often type, but it's not the word I intended to type, it's THAT automated.

Also, make sure your placement of your hands is correct, and try to stick to one type of keyboard. Even for me it takes quite a while to adjust to the keyboard. Since some have bigger/smaller enters and backspace buttons, you can often misspress your finger. Make sure your thumbs are on the spacebar, so you can quickly get the space while typing, and really use the little "ribbels" that are on the F and the J keys, you have to place your index fingers on these.

To conclude, learning to type with 10 fingers is worth EVERY minute you put into it, it really is. But it's an automation process for your brains, which you have to put some effort and patience in. Really the "air-typing" works wonders well when you also visualize the keyboard with the buttons on it.

If you have any further issues, let us hear them!

Good luck

[Ninja]

Originally Posted by Spiritual

Well I'm quite a fast ten finger typist. I did a course when I was younger on the old typemachines. Been the best thing I've EVER done.

Anyways what I did months after I learned it, when I was thinking I would type the words with my fingers in the air. It was quite weird actually, cause it was so habitual.

What I would recommend you to do is to learn to find all the letters of the alphabet blindly first. When you know where to find all the different letters you can start to form words, in the beginning you will make the words quite slowly, but after a while you become like an automatic dictionary. Nowadays I don't think about the keyboard anymore, it's become an extension of my brain now. Often I will type a different word that I often type, but it's not the word I intended to type, it's THAT automated.

Also, make sure your placement of your hands is correct, and try to stick to one type of keyboard. Even for me it takes quite a while to adjust to the keyboard. Since some have bigger/smaller enters and backspace buttons, you can often misspress your finger. Make sure your thumbs are on the spacebar, so you can quickly get the space while typing, and really use the little "ribbels" that are on the F and the J keys, you have to place your index fingers on these.

To conclude, learning to type with 10 fingers is worth EVERY minute you put into it, it really is. But it's an automation process for your brains, which you have to put some effort and patience in. Really the "air-typing" works wonders well when you also visualize the keyboard with the buttons on it.

If you have any further issues, let us hear them!

Good luck

I already did that last week, as mentioned I'm just very, VERY frustrated at my current speed and being unable to write creatively because of it.

I tried airtyping though... but my hands are cold and my right pinky won't move anymore. I probably shouldn't have pulled a four hour session, but I want my old speed back and continue writing my book! I have no doubt it will be worth it, but... ARGH!!!

[Rose of Cairo]

May I help?

Don't concentrate on speed. Or, yes, concentrate on speed: concentrate on typing SLOWLY. Why? Because the most important is 1) that your find the letters blindly. Practice not to look at the keyboard. Not even at the screen. and 2) that you type regularly. If you learn to type slowly, blindly and regularly, your speed will automatically increase with time and you'll end up typing much faster than someone who concentrated on typing fast while learning it!

I would practice half an hour a day, not more. Your brain needs time.

If you have some urgent things to say, why don't you use a voice recorder? So you can be creative and express what you have to say. You'll bring it to paper later.

I'd also not begin with words but with single letters. First the letters directly under your fingers, then the ones above those, then the ones under them, and so on. The danger of learning with words is that you'll type frequently used words much faster than the rest, which leads to a lack of regularity, which leads to speed loss in the end.

[Ree]

have you all considered Dragon Naturally Speaking?

Check it out.. and Good Luck!

[kat]

Originally Posted by Ninja

I tried airtyping though... but my hands are cold and my right pinky won't move anymore. I probably shouldn't have pulled a four hour session, but I want my old speed back and continue writing my book! I have no doubt it will be worth it, but... ARGH!!!

I strongly recommend getting a copy of "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook"; it helped when I had the same symptoms, from the same cause (too much typing). Beyond that, look into wrist stretching exercises, take breaks, and don't push it too far.

You really don't want to get tendinitis.... I've had it for the last year and a half, and have had to temporarily abandon my chosen field due to it. Trigger point therapy fixed my numbness and reduced the coldness of my hands, but it works on muscles, not tendons, so it can't fix tendinitis: as far as I know, nothing but time resting can (physiotherapy didn't help much).

Good luck with your typing, and take care of yourself.

[kat]

Originally Posted by Ninja

I
I'm tempted to "cheat" and write "just a few pages real quick" with my indexfingers, but I'm afraid that will harm the progress I made. What can I do? Cheat? Abstain from writing for a week (I can't be creative at this low speed!) until I finished all speed improvement lessons? Drink a mix of coffee and red bull so I can keep going all night and up the tempo?

If I were you, I would cheat. I regularly use multiple keymaps, which strikes me as similar to the difference between 2 and 10-finger typing. I'd expect it to harm your progress, but not in a major way, especially if you get used to typing both ways; then, you can slowly phase out the 2-fingered typing. I'd expect it to be a somewhat longer transition period this way.

Another week, for a total of two (I think?) seems optimistic. Generally, to learn a new keymap to the same speed as your old one takes about 3 weeks-> a month, as far as I know; I would think touch typing would take about as long.

[Ninja]

Originally Posted by kat

If I were you, I would cheat. I regularly use multiple keymaps, which strikes me as similar to the difference between 2 and 10-finger typing. I'd expect it to harm your progress, but not in a major way, especially if you get used to typing both ways; then, you can slowly phase out the 2-fingered typing. I'd expect it to be a somewhat longer transition period this way.

Another week, for a total of two (I think?) seems optimistic. Generally, to learn a new keymap to the same speed as your old one takes about 3 weeks-> a month, as far as I know; I would think touch typing would take about as long.

I tend to pick up on things fast... and I practiced about 2-3 hours a day But I should slow down before I kill my joints

I'm going to try the voice recording thing. I can then still be creative and put it in writing when my speed gets better. I'm already faster than yesterday!