The art of typing without typing
I’ve been wanting to work on my typing speed and accuracy for a long time and I finally got round to making a plan. I used the ‘outcome frame’ technique from one of my NLP books to help me figure out the next step. It boiled down to this really: that if I was to increase my typing speed then I need to know my current speed and then set a goal for my target speed. Specificity, you know what I mean.
So I did some online typing tests and then thought about my target speed. Something realistic. But then what? When would I do it? And for how long? What would be realistic? 20 minutes a day? Nah, couldn’t keep that up. So what then? 5 minutes a day. I could do that, surely. But then what could I do in 5 minutes that would be beneficial?
What is typing?
If you take away the letters, words and numbers, then what do you have left? You have fingers pressing keys. I am not learning to write or be creative, I am learning to press the keys on keyboard in the order that I think. I think of a word or a sentence and my fingers have to press keys. So what if there is no screen, what then? I am left with the act of typing itself and no written word. No mistakes to see. No speed to observe, only technique. The relationship of fingers and keys.
If I think of the process in slow motion then I can clearly see it. The letter is in my head. Then it tarvels down the arm to the finger and then the finger presses the key. But I have to do it without looking at the keyboard. I type using the Dvorak layout anyway so looking at the keyboard wouldn’t work anyway. And once the letter key has been pressed then the finger returns home.
That’s the process in theory. But in practice there are mistakes. And why do those mistakes occur? Tension. That’s right, too much tension in the fingers. Caused perhaps by trying too hard or incorrect ergonomics. But both of these issues can be solved.
Releasing Tension
So to stay with this idea of fingers simply pressing keys, one has to find the minimum pressure required to press the key in order for the electrical input to occur. It’s not like the old style type writers where you had press really hard. Just a little more than a touch is all that is required. A little more than the weight of the finger itself will do the job. So one of the exercises is to find out what is the minimum pressure required to depress a key. It’s tiny.
So the fingers don’t need to work very hard and neither should the rest of the body, especially the hands, wrists, arms and shoulders. But that level of relaxation can only be achieved with correct ergonomics. All the recommendations that come with the Apple computer set up manual apply here. The elbows should hang freely and the back of the wrist should be quite relaxed too. How is this achieved? By adjusting the heights or relative heights of the chair and table. Usually only the chair height can be adjusted. And then not only the arms and shoulders, but the rest of the body can be sitting in a more relaxed manner. With a better more upright posture.
Using the 80/20 principle
We use 80% of the keys 20% of the time and 20% of the keys 80% of the time. Identify that 20% and you’re well on your way to better typing. At least more efficient typing. And one of those keys is not a letter or number, it’s the shift key. Possibly more than the letter ‘e’. The other one is the ‘ll’ or double ‘l’. Not something that is immediately apparent. Improving ones performance in these letters and words, as well as the backspace key makes life a lot easier. So that’s the first step. But what is the real secret?
Guitar Practice
What does Guitar Practice have to do with typing? A few years ago I read a book called “The Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar”. It’s all about relaxing and closely examining the physical process of guitar playing and separate it from the music. At least to start with. He posits that the human body learns what it is taught and that includes tension. If we learn any skill in a tense manner then we will continue to execute that technique with tension. This will of course hamper our progress especially in terms of accuracy and speed.
This is equally true of the guitar and the typewriter keyboard because it’s the same fingers that learn those skills or techniques. The first step is to become completely relaxed in order to be able to observe where the tension arises. Then to execute the required movement with the very minimum of tension. The development of this ability comes before the typing of actual words or letters or spaces and hence does not require feedback from the screen. The computer can even be switched off.
My progress so far
So far I have been working on being relaxed and maintaining a good posture while typing. I have been working on the shift key. But being able to press the shift key without creating any tension in other parts of the body. I have been working on this for about 5 minutes or so before switching on the computer. I keep going while the computer boots. Sometimes I have safe booted or gone into target disk mode, but it’s rare.
On the left hand for example it’s a question of moving the little finger from the ‘a’ key to the shift key while keeping not only the finger itself as relaxed as possible, but also the rest of the hand. Then the same with the little finger of the right hand. Gradually my hands are relearning how to execute this technique while remaining relaxed.
First comes technique, then comes speed. The next thing will be to work on my speed using the metronome. Increasing the tempo a tiny bit at a time.