Being able to type quickly and accurately is a skill that can boost your productivity and efficiency. It doesn’t matter whether you are writing emails, coding, or working on a report, the ability to type quickly and accurately is highly underrated. Your typing speed and accuracy depend on various factors, and many people unknowingly make mistakes that slow them down and halt their progression in terms of typing speed. So in this regard, we have discussed some common typing mistakes that slow you down so that you can work on those mistakes to improve your typing speed and accuracy.
1. Poor Posture and Ergonomics
Typing speed is not just about your fingers and hands; it is also about how you sit and position your body. Poor posture while typing, such as slouching or hunching over your keyboard, can lead to discomfort and fatigue, which can slow you down. Plus, having improper ergonomics, like a keyboard being too low or too high, an unsatisfactory chair height, or keyboard buttons too hard to press, can strain your fingers and wrists, making it difficult for you to type quickly.
This can be prevented by sitting up straight with your feet flat on the floor and your back supported by the chair while typing. Positioning your keyboard at an optimum height and using a chair with proper lumbar support, along with adjusting the height of the desk, can help.
2. Not Using All Fingers (Hunt-and-Peck Typing)
A very common mistake that slows you down while typing is not using all 10 fingers. Using only a few fingers to type, often called “hunt-and-peck” typing, is a mistake that can reduce your efficiency and slow you down while typing. Hunt-and-peck typing involves looking at the keyboard and using one or two fingers to press keys. This method is incredibly inefficient, and you should always learn touch typing and use all 10 fingers without looking at the keyboard to improve your typing.
3. Looking at the Keyboard While Typing
Constantly looking at the keyboard while typing can slow you down while typing, and you can feel this in real time. This habit of constantly looking at the keyboard while typing breaks your focus and forces you to pause momentarily and focus on the next key that you want to press. This disrupts your flow and makes you inefficient while typing.
This habit can be overcome by learning touch typing or practicing typing without looking at the keyboard. Although it is hard to transition from typing while looking at the keyboard to typing without looking at the keyboard, you can start with simple exercises and tests offered by websites like TypingTest.co for free and gradually increase the difficulty. Once you memorize the keyboard layout and your muscle memory develops, your hands will move on their own while typing, and you needn’t look at the keyboard.
4. Over-reliance on Backspace and Editing While Typing
People who overly rely on backspace while typing are unable to type efficiently. You might have noticed that many people have a habit of constantly hitting the backspace key while typing to correct mistakes as they type. While it is important to fix errors, doing so while in the middle of typing can disrupt the entire flow, make you lose focus, and slow you down.
Instead of fixing errors in the middle of typing, focus on typing first and editing later to let your thoughts flow without worrying about mistakes. You can use typing tools to highlight your errors in real-time so that you can address them later on.
You can also practice typing accuracy instead of speed to improve your typing accuracy and reduce mistakes. To practice typing accuracy, you can take the 5-minute typing test by TypingTest.co. The 5-minute typing test is the same test as other typing tests, with a higher time limit so that you can assess your speed and accuracy for a longer period.
5. Using an Unfamiliar or Non-Ergonomic Keyboard
Having an ergonomic and familiar keyboard is very important for typing efficiency because your keyboard plays a major role in your typing speed and accuracy. If you are using an unfamiliar or poorly designed keyboard, then it can decrease your typing efficiency, slow you down, and cause discomfort. To prevent this, invest in an ergonomic keyboard with one keyboard layout (e.g., QWERTY) and stick to it. Use the same keyboard for typing, as a difference in the keyboard size can also make a world of difference in your typing speed and overall comfort.
