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How to Type Faster: 10 Tips to Improve Your Typing Speed

5 min read •
Beginner Typing Productivity Keyboard Practice

Whether you are a student writing essays, a professional sending emails, or a programmer writing code — typing speed matters. The average person types 40 WPM (words per minute). With proper technique and practice, you can reach 70-100 WPM in a few weeks.

Test Your Current Speed

Before improving, measure where you are. Use our free Typing Speed Test to measure your WPM and accuracy. Take the test 3 times and average the results for a baseline.

WPM Level Typical For
Under 25 Hunt and peck Looking at keyboard while typing
25-40 Below average Casual computer users
40-60 Average Most office workers
60-80 Above average Experienced typists
80-100 Fast Professional typists, programmers
100+ Expert Top 1% — competitive typists

Tip 1: Learn the Home Row

The foundation of touch typing is the home row — where your fingers rest: 

Left hand:  A S D F (pinky, ring, middle, index)
Right hand: J K L ; (index, middle, ring, pinky)
Thumbs:     Space bar

Your index fingers should feel the small bumps on F and J. These bumps let you find home position without looking.

Every key on the keyboard is reached from the home row. Your fingers move up or down to hit other keys, then return to home position.

Tip 2: Never Look at the Keyboard

This is the hardest habit to break, but it is the most important. If you look at the keyboard, you will never develop muscle memory.

How to practice:

  • Cover your keyboard with a cloth or piece of paper
  • Or buy blank keycaps
  • Or use an on-screen keyboard layout as reference instead of looking down

The first week will be painful and slow. By week two, your fingers will start finding keys automatically.

Tip 3: Use All 10 Fingers

If you only use 2-4 fingers ("hunt and peck"), you are limited to about 30-40 WPM. Using all 10 fingers distributes the work and doubles your potential speed.

Finger assignments:

Finger Keys
Left pinky Q, A, Z, 1, Shift, Tab, Caps Lock
Left ring W, S, X, 2
Left middle E, D, C, 3
Left index R, T, F, G, V, B, 4, 5
Right index Y, U, H, J, N, M, 6, 7
Right middle I, K, comma, 8
Right ring O, L, period, 9
Right pinky P, semicolon, slash, 0, Enter, Shift, Backspace
Thumbs Space bar

Tip 4: Focus on Accuracy First

Speed means nothing if every other word has a typo. Accuracy builds the correct muscle memory — speed follows naturally.

Target: 95%+ accuracy at all times.

If you type fast but with 85% accuracy, you spend more time fixing mistakes than you save by typing fast. Slow down, get every word right, and speed will come.

Tip 5: Practice 15 Minutes Daily

Consistency beats intensity. Typing for 15 minutes every day is far more effective than 2 hours once a week.

Practice routine:

  1. Take our Typing Test (60 seconds)
  2. Note your WPM and accuracy
  3. Practice for 10 minutes focusing on weak areas
  4. Take the test again to see improvement

Track your progress weekly. Most people improve 5-10 WPM per week with daily practice.

Tip 6: Type Common Words Fast

The most common English words make up the majority of what you type: 

the, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have, I,
it, for, not, on, with, he, as, you, do, at,
this, but, his, by, from, they, we, her, she, or

Practice typing these words until they become automatic — your fingers should type them without thinking.

Tip 7: Learn Keyboard Shortcuts

Fast typists use the keyboard for everything, minimizing mouse usage:

Shortcut Action Time Saved
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V Copy / Paste Huge
Ctrl+Z Undo Huge
Ctrl+A Select all Moderate
Ctrl+F Find text Moderate
Ctrl+S Save Moderate
Alt+Tab Switch windows Huge
Ctrl+T New browser tab Small
Ctrl+W Close tab Small
Home/End Jump to start/end of line Moderate
Ctrl+Backspace Delete whole word Huge

Ctrl+Backspace alone will save you hundreds of keystrokes per day — it deletes the entire previous word instead of one character at a time.

Tip 8: Good Posture Matters

Bad posture causes fatigue, which causes typos, which causes slow typing.

  • Sit up straight — do not hunch over the keyboard
  • Elbows at 90 degrees — forearms parallel to the desk
  • Wrists floating — do not rest them on the desk while typing (wrist rests are for pausing, not typing)
  • Screen at eye level — prevents neck strain
  • Feet flat on the floor — stable base

Tip 9: Use a Good Keyboard

A comfortable keyboard makes a real difference:

Type Feel Speed Potential Best For
Laptop keyboard Flat, low travel Good Portability
Membrane Squishy, quiet Good Office, budget
Mechanical Tactile, satisfying Best Serious typing, programming

If you type a lot, a mechanical keyboard with tactile switches (Cherry MX Brown, Gateron Brown) provides the best feedback and speed.

Test your keyboard's functionality with our Keyboard Tester.

Tip 10: Do Not Plateau — Push Past Comfort

Most people reach 50-60 WPM and stop improving because they type at a comfortable speed. To break through:

  • Deliberately type faster than comfortable — accept more errors temporarily
  • Practice difficult text — technical writing, unfamiliar words, numbers and symbols
  • Type along with audio — play a podcast or speech and try to transcribe in real time
  • Set incremental goals — aim for 5 WPM improvement each week

Track Your Progress

Use our Typing Speed Test regularly to track improvement:

  • Test weekly at the same time of day
  • Use the 60-second test for consistency
  • Record your WPM and accuracy
  • Celebrate milestones (50 WPM, 70 WPM, 90 WPM!)

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