That doesn’t mean that we have chosen the best ways to go about it.  What is pretty comical about the QWERTY keyboard that we use today is this – when the typewriter was invented just after the US civil war the design was changed.

“The type-bar system and the universal keyboard were the machine’s novelty, but the keys jammed easily. To solve the jamming problem, another business associate, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to slow down typing. This became today’s standard “QWERTY” keyboard.” – Wiki article

I guess for all you who can’t type (or can’t type well) this is a relief.  You were never meant to!

Unfortunately, considering all of the different keyboards we see each day, I can think of three good reasons to type faster:

1. You will get done quicker.  It may seem idiotic to say out loud, but do you really want to spend that much time writing out your thoughts?  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to input data accurately and quickly, leaving time for the rest of your life (as a reminder, this is the entire point of this blog)
2. Your colleagues won’t leave you behind.  As someone who has done the entry-level job a few times, I’m convinced that entering data, creating documents, spreadsheets and powerpoints are all mandatory rights of passage in most office jobs.  You can’t be an ideas person from day one and you don’t want your colleagues to realize this before you do.  You’ll have to get these tasks done quickly before the others…
3. Speech to text stinks.  I’ve been blown away by several new technologies in this area over the past few years, but in reality, we are still a few years away from a speech recognition revolution.  In the meantime, are you going to just hunt and peck at 1 word per minute?
4. It is absolutely faster than writing.  The average person writes around 22 words per minute when copying and only 31 when the text is memorized (wiki article).  I promise that with minimal typing practice, you could pound out 40 wpm.

Ok so if we’re going to try to improve your typing speed, maybe we should present a goal.  Books on tape are recommended to be read at 150-160 wpm.  My totally unscientific suggestion would be this – aim to capture every 3rd word.  This translates to around 50wpm.  I know you can do it.  Here are some tools to help.

Getting started

Before you can improve, you should figure out where you stand.  What is your current typing speed?  I tried a couple before writing this post and have chosen two.

The typing speed game

This site provides a great typing test of variable length.  I liked it because when I made a mistake, it didn’t break.  For example, if I misspell speed as speeed, this typing test still goes to the next word, rather than getting stuck on the last d and forcing me to type that before I can continue.  I think this emulates reality, as we rarely fix all spelling errors before continuing to the next word… Here are what the results look like:

Your score: 343 keys per minute ~ 68 words per minute
Language/mode: en
Ranking: That was fast – you can still improve, though.
Comparison: 23% of 34247 registered TyperA users using this language have typed a better result; 77% have a lower or equal result.

Powertyping

This site is annoying because of the error I described above, but it does give you an error rate (an embarrassing value for me).  I found out that out of the 75 words I typed, I made 11 mistakes.  This was a good reminder that although my speed might be fine, my error rate slows me down and should be my area of focus.

Training

Now that you know where you are, it’s time to start the heavy lifting. Try the tutors in this section and don’t forget to spend time playing the games in the next.  This shouldn’t be a chore – a few minutes here and there will provide immediate improvements.  Also, don’t forget to keep your lessons in mind when doing your work. Continuous practice, not fancy games, is what will make you a guru.

Beginner – http://www.typingweb.com/typingtutor/

Intermediate- http://www.keybr.com/

Fun

I like this game word shoot that I found through the lifehacker page:  Word Shoot

Also, although annoyingly covered in ads, there is a great selection of games at freetypinggame.net

Good luck!  It might not be immediate, but I know you can improve your typing.  You can do it!

~ab

How did this happen???

When was I in a sandstorm with my desktop keyboard?  Did they roach bomb my apartment without me knowing?  This is disgusting…

A new camera, with pretty resolution and increased motivation to play, can create … stress.  In my case, I took a picture of my keyboard, just playing with the close up zoom and almost threw up.  It was filthy!!!  Thus began my quest – I was going to clean it, no matter how long it took (and considering how long it took… it’s probably a good thing I made a blood oath on it…)

A little internet research shows that I’m on the only one a little concerned… Take this quote from a study done in Britain:

Four of the keyboards were considered a potential health hazard and one was "condemned".

Two had "warning levels" of staphylococcus aureus and two others had "worryingly elevated" levels of coliforms and enterobacteria, "putting users at high risk of becoming ill from contact".

Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-563110/How-keyboard-FIVE-TIMES-dirtier-toilet-seat–qwerty-tummy.html#ixzz0OjSImmNV

It was time to act…  My keyboard a hazard to my health??? Not ok.

Before I start… Are you sure you even want to know how to do this?  I’m sure that there are professionals out there who would tell you to stop.  Heck, unless you have the same exact keyboard that I do (a standard Dell clacker), there’s very little chance that this will work out for you…  That’s my disclaimer.  Don’t be dumb – evaluate the risk before you start.  I am not responsible for you do, just what I did below.  If you have any doubt, stop.

First I removed the case.  Keyboards, that I have seen, come in two parts, the electronic part and the mechanical part.  Normally, these are separated by some sort of (hopefully) waterproof, washable and chewable barrier.  The first step was to remove the part I could break (the electronic part) and put it safely away.

The rubber barrier had to go too, as I wasn’t sure exactly what it was made of and didn’t want to destroy it.

This is the underside of my keyboard.  It doesn’t look all that dirty, but believe me, it was visibly nasty.

I entertained myself banging the keys against my desk, trying to make junk fall out.  When did I eat rice…?

Then I even took a key off to see how dirty it really was…

Look at that dust and rot in the rut next to the Right key!  How did it get like that??

So I put it in the bath and sprayed the heck out of it.

For a while…

Then I used a Q-tip to remove the gunk that remained…

Which worked, but as you can see, the gunk is black and it didn’t seem to end…

I dried the keyboard off with my wife’s hair dryer (sorry honey)

  >

which only took a few minutes.

The black gunk was truly worrying and there seemed to be a ton of it between every key.

Moreover, when I’d dried the keyboard off, it actually looked about the same…

I toyed with the idea of taking the keys off and cleaning one at a time with Goo Be Gone, but that took probably half an hour for 5 keys…

So I gave up…

and threw it in the dishwasher…

but made sure it was on air dry.

Then I went for a short walk in the neighborhood…

saw my friend Michael…

had some coffee…

took a few more photos…

and came back when it was clean.

It shines now. 

It never looked that good before!!!

Here is the final summary…

I certainly had fun – but I learned a good lesson.  Keeping my keyboard clean on a regular basis is pretty important.  It saves a lot of work…

~ab