Sometimes It’s Good to Look Back

Especially if you have data to compare. Recently a website that I used often Monkeytype, reminded me that it has been two years since I started typing on their website. Here’s a snapshot of the progress over two years.

There’s a slow but steady increasing trend shown by the graph. It shows how fast I can type per minute – words per minute (WPM) – which is measured by a typing test. Try it for yourself: Monkeytype.

What’s interesting is that I have noticed that my speed has increased, but I have forgotten how long since I started to try to improve my typing. Two years is quite a long time in running a project, and I would not have imagine that I would not have imagined that I would kept at it as I first started, AND that I would almost double my speed. In fact I have started timing my WPM more than two years, as I had been using another website which has stopped working, before changing to Monkeytype.

Why type faster?

Why not? It is such a pertinent act these days as you need to type if you were to work. If you can type faster, logically you can finish your work faster (a little tiny bit). Honestly though when I was small, I’ve always thought that hackers type very fast and hence it has been implanted in my mind that typing fast seems so cool. Nowadays I just think it is a useful skill that I can improve continuously over time. Ali Abdaal explains some of the benefits, which convinced me to start in the fast place.

1% Improvement Daily, 37 time yearly

That’s a quote or summary of the book Atomic Habits. Right after finishing that book, I thought that I would improve my typing by following the book. But typing or practicing everyday seems to be a bit of a chore and I missed a few days at the start, so much so that I thought that I might as well set the practice to be every 3 days. I also tried to set the test for around 15 minutes but found out that it was tooooo long. I tried 3 minutes but it was too short. In the end I settled at 5 minutes per session, one session every 3 days. The graph at the top shows the result after around two years of following that schedule.

What next?

It is easy to dismiss your achievement if you compare it to others. In my case, if you googled typing fast, the common range to justify that term is around 150 wpm, at least. I don’t come even half as near to that. But who cares (I do, but I shouldn’t)? Because if I compare it to myself, I have seen a great confirmation that practice does improve. So next I’ll be continuing with the routine.

Also there is the question of my typing test is just a laisse faire process. I do not really put effort into it. I think it is time for me to learn how to type better and faster. I’m still planning on this and if there’s any tips on that, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading.