Learning Touch Typing

I now understand why I’ve always had a hard time getting into VIM. I’ve tried it on and off for years, and of everything I’ve read about it, I have not seen ‘knowing to type properly’ as a prerequisite. I think it is. ‘Keeping your fingers on the home row’ is a big thing with it, but this doesn’t help if you’re not usually typing with your fingers on the home row in the first place.

Anyway, VIM aside, I’ve decided to learn how to type properly. I can type pretty fast, but I only ever use my index and middle fingers. I also have to look at the keys when typing. I think this really limits my speed. And not just my typing speed - the speed of all my work in general. The fact that I have to look down to type, then up to confirm that what I’ve written is correct means I’m using twice the time to write - and I do this a lot in the course of a normal working day.

Something else that really bugs me is when I’ve typed a whole sentence only to look up and realize the window/textbox I was supposed to be typing on is no longer in focus, and all my typing wasn’t doing anything, or worse, was triggering random shortcuts in a different window.

keybr has been awesome for practicing. I also try to practice passively while working, which has made me very slow, but I think it’s a worthwhile investment.