How to type faster: what the research says
Most advice about typing faster is folklore. Researchers have now measured how hundreds of thousands of people type, keystroke by keystroke, so we can say with some confidence what fast typists do differently. Here is what the evidence shows, and what it suggests for practice.
Fast typists make fewer mistakes, not just quicker movements
In the largest study of typing so far (168,960 volunteers, 136 million keystrokes), fast typists made fewer errors, and the biggest difference between fast and slow typists was in substitutions: hitting a wrong key in place of the right one (Dhakal et al., 2018). People who corrected less were faster, and the authors note that because fixing a mistake also means finding it, reducing errors a little can give a large gain in speed.
So the first lever is accuracy. A mistake costs you the wrong keystroke, the backspace, the retype and the moment it takes to notice.
They overlap their keystrokes
Fast typists often press the next key before they have let go of the last one. This “rollover” was the measure most strongly linked to speed in the same study (correlation r = 0.73). Most typists in the top 10%, above about 78 words per minute, used it on 40 to 70% of keystrokes; slow typists hardly used it at all (Dhakal et al., 2018).
How long each key is held down barely differed between fast and slow typists. Speed comes from the gaps between keys, not from pressing each key more briefly.
They don't look at the keyboard, and each key has one finger
In a motion-capture study of 30 typists, the people who were fastest used a consistent finger for each key, got their fingers moving toward upcoming keys early, and moved their hands around little (Feit et al., 2016). In a study of 1,301 students, skilled and less skilled typists differed most in how often they looked at the keyboard and how many fingers they used (Pinet et al., 2022).
Interestingly, formal touch-typing is not the only route: touch typists and self-taught typists in the motion-capture study were equally fast on average, and some people using one or two fingers per hand went over 70 wpm (Feit et al., 2016). What mattered was consistency and not searching for keys.
Practice on real words, not random letters
Skilled typists plan whole words and let their fingers run each word as a unit. Scrambling the letters inside words slows them down a lot, while scrambling the order of words barely matters (Logan & Crump, 2011). Random letter strings make even fast typists look like beginners (Behmer & Crump, 2017).
Practice on particular letters does carry over: typists who practiced words made from a small set of letters became faster on new words made from those same letters (Crump & Logan, 2010). That points to practicing your weak letters and letter pairs inside many different real words.
Keep your attention on the words, not your fingers
Thinking about your hands while typing is very disruptive. When skilled typists were asked to type only the letters belonging to one hand, their speed collapsed from about 80 to 14 wpm (Logan & Crump, 2011). Practice with your attention on the text and on keeping it flowing, and leave finger technique to deliberate, separate practice.
Short, regular sessions beat long ones
In a classic study of people learning to type on a new keyboard, one hour a day was the most efficient schedule per hour of training, and two 2-hour sessions a day was the least efficient, with more errors too (Baddeley & Longman, 1978). Those were beginners, so treat the exact numbers with care, but the direction fits a large body of research on spaced practice.
A practice plan that follows the evidence
- Take a few normal typing tests to find out which keys, letter pairs and habits cost you the most time. Guessing tends to pick the wrong targets.
- Practice those weak spots inside varied, real words, at a pace where you stay accurate.
- Keep sessions short (10 to 20 minutes) and spread them across the week.
- Judge progress on ordinary text, on a later day, not on the drill you just did. Performance during practice overstates what has stuck.
- Don't look at the keyboard, even when it feels slower at first.
What we don't know yet
We could not find a controlled trial showing that any typing tutor makes skilled adults faster. Typing-course alumni in the big study were only about 5 wpm faster than people who never took one (Dhakal et al., 2018). The habits above are linked to speed, but nobody has proven that training each of them directly causes a speed-up. That is why Boost Type measures your own progress on comparable text rather than promising a number.
Find your own weak spots
Boost Type records which keys, letter pairs and habits cost you the most time, then builds short practice around them. Three tests is enough to start.
Questions
What is the fastest way to type faster?
Cut your mistakes first. Across typists, fewer errors and fewer corrections go with higher speed, because each mistake costs several keystrokes of time. Then practice your specific weak letters and pairs inside real words, in short daily sessions.
Do I need to learn touch typing to type fast?
Not necessarily. In one study, touch typists and self-taught typists were equally fast on average. What fast typists share is not looking at the keyboard and using the same finger for each key every time.
Should I practice with random letters?
Mostly no. Typing skill works on whole words, and random strings make even experts type like beginners. Practice your weak letters inside real words instead.
How long should I practice each day?
Short sessions work better than long ones. 10 to 20 minutes a day, spread across the week, is a sensible target.
Sources
- Dhakal, V., Feit, A. M., Kristensson, P. O., & Oulasvirta, A. (2018). Observations on typing from 136 million keystrokes. CHI '18. doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174220
- Feit, A. M., Weir, D., & Oulasvirta, A. (2016). How we type: Movement strategies and performance in everyday typing. CHI '16, 4262-4273. doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858233
- Pinet, S., Zielinski, C., Alario, F.-X., & Longcamp, M. (2022). Typing expertise in a large student population. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 7, 77. doi.org/10.1186/s41235-022-00424-3
- Logan, G. D., & Crump, M. J. C. (2011). Hierarchical control of cognitive processes: The case for skilled typewriting. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 54, 1-27. www.crumplab.com/publications/Crump/files/3898/Logan%20and%20Crump%20-%202011%20-%20Hierarchical%20control%20of%20cognitive%20processes%20The%20c.pdf
- Behmer, L. P., Jr., & Crump, M. J. C. (2017). Crunching big data with fingertips: How typists tune their performance toward the statistics of natural language. In Big Data in Cognitive Science (pp. 319-341). Routledge. www.crumplab.com/publications/Crump/files/4991/Behmer%20and%20Crump%20-%202017%20-%20Crunching%20big%20data%20with%20finger%20tips%20How%20typists%20t.pdf
- Crump, M. J. C., & Logan, G. D. (2010). Episodic contributions to sequential control: Learning from a typist's touch. JEP: Human Perception and Performance, 36(3), 662-672. doi.org/10.1037/a0018390
- Baddeley, A. D., & Longman, D. J. A. (1978). The influence of length and frequency of training session on the rate of learning to type. Ergonomics, 21(8), 627-635. www.gwern.net/doc/psychology/spaced-repetition/1978-baddeley.pdf