Field guide
A field guide to steady typing
General habits for typing accurately over long stretches. Read the guide once, try one habit at a time, and check your progress with the practice run rather than with how you feel.
Chapter 01
Set up your reach
Sit so the top of the screen sits at about eye level, and let your forearms rest roughly level with the keyboard. Keep the keys within easy reach so your hands do not have to stretch to find them. Many people find a low, flat wrist rest more comfortable than a high one, and some find none at all suits them better. Adjust the chair and the desk before you begin, not halfway through a long session.
Chapter 02
Warm up without chasing the clock
Read the passage once before you type it. Then type it with your attention on the shapes of the words rather than on the number in the corner of the screen. Notice where you hesitate. Those are the places to slow down on purpose, because hesitation at a particular spot usually means the hands have not yet learned that sequence.
Chapter 03
Pace before speed
Choose a pace you could keep for the whole test without rushing or stalling. A pace you can hold is more useful than a burst you cannot repeat. Once the errors have dropped away, the speed tends to rise on its own. If you chase speed while accuracy is slipping, you train the errors into the routine, and they become harder to remove later.
Chapter 04
Read your errors
After a test, look at the characters you got wrong. Are they the same keys, the same finger, or the same pairs of letters? Practice the difficult sequence slowly, then at a normal pace, then return to the full passage. Keep a short note of the patterns you find. The note is more useful than any single score, because it shows what to practice next.
Chapter 05
Keep sessions short
Several short sessions with rest between them build routine better than one long session. Stop when your accuracy starts to drop, because practice past that point mostly rehearses mistakes. A session that ends while you still feel composed is a better session than one that ends in frustration.
Chapter 06
Know when to stop
Stop and rest if typing causes pain, numbness, tingling, or swelling, and do not push through it. Speak with a qualified health professional about any symptoms that continue. This guide describes general habits. It is not medical advice, and it does not replace care from a clinician.
Try this: choose one chapter, practice its habit for a few sessions, then take a timed run in the practice tab and compare the measures tab with what you saw. Return to the practice run.