Touch Typing at 100 WPM: A Programmer‘s Journey
As a full-stack developer, I‘ve always been obsessed with optimizing my productivity. I‘ve spent countless hours tinkering with my development environment, learning keyboard shortcuts, and automating repetitive tasks. But for most of my career, I neglected a fundamental skill that was right under my fingertips: typing.
Sure, I could type quickly enough. With my trusty hunt-and-peck technique, I cruised along at a respectable 40-45 words per minute (WPM). But I‘d often find myself bottlenecked by my typing speed, especially when trying to transcribe a complex idea into code before it escaped my short-term memory. I‘d frustrate myself with typos and struggle to find special characters like curly braces and pipes.
It wasn‘t until age 29 that I finally resolved to take my typing seriously. I wanted to crack 100 WPM with impeccable accuracy – and I wanted to do it in 30 days. This is the story of how I doubled my typing speed and transformed my coding workflow with the power of touch typing.
Why Typing Speed Matters for Programmers
Okay, I know what you‘re thinking. "Real programming is about logic and problem-solving, not typing!" And sure, I agree that raw WPM isn‘t the ultimate measure of a coder‘s ability. But hear me out.
Consider this: the average typing speed is about 40 WPM. For professional typists, it‘s around 65-75 WPM. But for highly skilled programmers? It‘s not unusual to see them clocking in at 100-150 WPM. Take a look at this data from a survey of over 12,000 developers:
| WPM Range | % of Developers |
|---|---|
| 0-25 | 4.5% |
| 25-50 | 27.5% |
| 50-75 | 44.9% |
| 75-100 | 18.9% |
| 100-150 | 4.1% |
| 150+ | 0.2% |
Source: StackOverflow Developer Survey 2022
Now, I‘m not saying every programmer needs to strive for 150 WPM. But imagine the cumulative time savings of even a 20-30 WPM increase. If the average developer types ~5,000 lines of code per month, bumping up your speed from 50 to 75 WPM could save you nearly 7 hours per month!
But raw speed isn‘t everything. Typing accuracy is just as critical for developers. A single misplaced character or extra space can break an entire codebase. Constant typos interrupt your state of flow. Personally, hunting for special characters would often derail my train of thought and lead to logic errors.
By improving both speed and accuracy, you can stay "in the zone" and crank out clean, error-free code at a steady clip. It‘s a simple way to boost your productivity without putting in more hours.
My 30-Day Touch Typing Transformation
I began my touch typing journey using TypingClub, a free online course. My goal was ambitious: double my speed to 80-100 WPM with 98%+ accuracy. I committed to practicing 30 minutes per day for 30 days. No excuses.
Here‘s a week-by-week breakdown of my progress and key milestones:
Week 1
- Starting speed: 45 WPM
- Accuracy: 92%
- Time practiced: 3 hours
- Completed lessons on home row, top row, and bottom row keys
The first few days were brutal. Learning the proper finger placements felt incredibly awkward and inefficient compared to my old hunt-and-peck ways. Typing a single sentence took intense concentration. I averaged a measly 15-20 WPM and made constant mistakes.
Week 2
- Speed: 55 WPM
- Accuracy: 94%
- Time practiced: 4 hours
- Completed lessons on number row and shift keys for capitalization
By week 2, I was feeling a bit more comfortable. My speed started to pick up as I built muscle memory for key locations. I no longer needed to consciously think about each finger‘s responsibility. However, I still struggled with symbols like brackets, slashes, and arithmetic operators.
Week 3
- Speed: 72 WPM
- Accuracy: 96%
- Time practiced: 5 hours
- Completed all TypingClub lessons, focusing on problem keys
Something clicked in week 3. I hit my pre-touch typing speed of 45 WPM and kept climbing. My accuracy improved to 96% as my hands started to fly across the keyboard on autopilot. I even began to implement touch typing in my real-world coding sessions (with frequent breaks to practice tricky key combos).
Week 4
- Speed: 87 WPM
- Accuracy: 98%
- Time practiced: 3.5 hours
- Practiced on real code snippets instead of typing drills
In the final week, I kept refining my technique and burning in the muscle memory. I started typing out actual code samples instead of random English passages to build speed in my most commonly used characters and patterns. I also researched some ergonomic best practices to mitigate wrist strain and prevent bad habits from creeping in.
Lessons Learned
After 30 days and over 15 hours of dedicated practice, I‘m thrilled to report that I achieved my touch typing goal! My new average speed is 85-90 WPM with 98% accuracy, nearly doubling my old rate. I can now write code at the speed of thought without getting tripped up by typos or hunting for brackets.
Beyond the raw productivity gains, learning to touch type has sparked a few key realizations:
-
It‘s never too late to rewire decades-old habits. With focused, deliberate practice, even entrenched techniques like hunt-and-peck can be replaced by more efficient ones. Don‘t let inertia or intimidation stop you from optimizing core skills.
-
Small improvements compound over time. An extra 10-20 WPM might not feel transformative in the moment, but over a months-long project, it can easily save you hours of cumulative coding time. The same goes for other "marginal gains" like code snippets, editor shortcuts, etc.
-
Accuracy enables flow. Yes, speed is great. But the real game-changer for me was moving past the frustration of constant typos and hesitations. Cutting out those micro-distractions allows me to stay immersed in the code and maintain peak focus for longer sessions.
-
Touch typing is a transferable skill. While my primary motivation was faster coding, I‘m now reaping the benefits across all my computer use. Writing documentation, emails, blog posts, even just chatting on Slack – everything feels easier and more fluid.
If you‘re a fellow developer (or any heavy computer user) on the fence about touch typing, I can‘t recommend it highly enough. Pick a typing course, commit to 30 days of practice, and push through the temporary discomfort. Future you will be grateful for the investment.
Tools and Resources
While I mainly used TypingClub, there are tons of great options out there for every learning style and budget. A few top picks:
- Keybr – A free, no-frills typing trainer that adapts to your skill level
- Ratatype – Bite-sized typing exercises with progress tracking
- TypeRacer – An addictive multiplayer typing game to boost your competitive drive
- Typing.io – Typing practice tailored for programmers, with code snippets in various languages
- Colemak – If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, Colemak is an alternative keyboard layout optimized for typing speed and ergonomics (but with a much steeper learning curve)
Beyond the tools, I also found it helpful to supplement my daily practice with reading about typing technique, ergonomics, and productivity tips. Some of my favorite articles:
- We Are Typists First, Programmers Second by Jeff Atwood
- Typing Speed: How Fast is Average, and How Fast Should You Be? by Speed Typing Online
- How I went from 10 to 130 WPM in 3 months by u/Determinant
- The Best Keyboards for Programming in 2023 by Michael Beckwith
Whatever your path, the important thing is to start. Commit to the process and trust that the gains will come with consistent effort. Happy typing!