Typing at the speed of thought
Typing slow is like running with a parachute strapped to your back. Sure, you're going through the motions, but it's slow, boring, and takes all the enjoyment out of the work.
When you stop to think about the mechanical actions required to convert a sentence in your brain into keystrokes, your mind can't think freely. It becomes harder to enter flow.
My goal: reduce the time between an idea forming in my brain and that idea being captured on screen to zero.
Draft faster, improve faster
When you type quickly, you draft quickly. When you draft quickly, you start editing sooner. When you start editing sooner, you share more work with more people. And the more you share, the more feedback you get, the better your ideas become.
Faster output means more iteration cycles means more opportunities to learn and improve.
How to type faster
Learn touch typing. If you ever look at the keyboard for a key, start here. Your eyes should never leave the screen.
Learn keyboard shortcuts for text navigation:
- Option + arrows → move between words
- Shift + arrows → select characters
- Shift + option + arrows → select words
- Command + arrows → jump to start/end of lines
- Option + backspace → delete a word
- Command + backspace → delete entire line
If you're hitting backspace more than twice in a row or reaching for your mouse to move the cursor, you should have used a shortcut.
Play typing games. Typeracer, Typist, keybr.com—spend 20 minutes a day improving your speed and accuracy.
Recognize when you're slow. My rule: if I reach for my mouse while writing or designing, it's a sign I should be using a keyboard shortcut instead.
The numbers
The average person types around 40-50 WPM. Professional typists hit 75-80 WPM. Anything over 100 WPM is considered fast.
Once you cross that threshold, something magical happens: your eyes glaze over, muscle memory takes hold, and the distance between your brain and the computer disappears.
Will we always need to type? Maybe not. Dictation tools and AI are improving. But we're not there yet. Until then: type faster.