Are You A Keyboard Ninja? Tips And Tricks To Type Faster

5 mins read

There is nothing wrong with using your mouse, but how crazy this sounds when you are living on the digital edge. Yes, the choice will be yours, nevertheless, given you know what you’re doing, the keyboard is undeniably a better choice to be more productive and get things done quicker. And it gets consistently amazeballs with keyboard shortcuts and knowing how to type faster. How? Let’s get this straight through an example that probably everyone will understand:

Task: To copy and paste

With mouse: Selecting the text, right-clicking, picking up the option from the menu, and doing the same procedure again for pasting

With keyboard shortcuts: Selecting the text, Ctrl C and Ctrl V….. that’s it, it’s as easy as ABC!

It’s time to fish or cut bait. But, if you are convinced you're about to earn a lot of free time back. Let’s rope in this journey of learning the keyboard shortcuts and tips to type faster.

Quick note: If you are a Mac user, use the Command key as a substitute for the Control key

Learn, unlearn and relearn

It’s high time to leave behind all your bad typing habits and relearn the correct finger placement on the keyboard. Many type with 2 fingers hovering over the entire keyboard and others (mostly the gamers) have a special affection for WASD keys. Yes, old habits die hard and it is probably the hardest thing to practice but can save you hours in your entire course of life.

Trick: Notice raised bumps on your F and J keys (they are not manufacturing defects or fancy stuff) - this is where you should put your index fingers so that the rest of the fingers will fall into place automatically. 

Tip: You can look for apps like Keybr, TypingClub, or typing.com for learning to type faster and keyboard shortcuts

Next up: Something for seasoned typists

This skill is not just for writers or typists, anyone who deals with the keyboard on a daily basis can make it a target to learn touch type. Have you drooled over people typing without looking at the keyboard with cent percent accuracy? These are not born typists! It takes days and weeks of practice to get there. In fact, this can be of great help for programmers, coders, research writers, or students struggling with the train of assignments. What about learning the skill of touch-typing in this lockdown? Give it a thought!

Trick: Start practicing typing sentences with a slight sneak peek into the keyboard and try to remember the position of each letter while you type. Gradually, you will master touch-typing!

Tip: Learning to type faster is no duck soup. Your original, not-so-seasoned style will tempt you to get back to your style but do not revert, even if it slows you down.

Keyboard shortcuts: Navitagating texts and browser the smarter way

You know how to cut and paste, but do you know how to open the most recently closed tab or how to go back one page in your browsing history? It is surprising how most people do not make use of the default options that their system gives. 

If you want to learn to type faster and make your work more intriguing, here are some keyboard shortcuts that can get more work done in less time.

With this, you must have realized it’s no surprise why we are given so many keyboard shortcuts! So, why spend time using a mouse to navigate?

All told, with time you will be comfortable with finger placement as well as remembering the position of keys and keyboard shortcuts. Besides learning how to type faster this lockdown, you can also look for:

• Going beyond syntax: Learning coding from scratch vs. application framework
• Learning to code? Here are 5 popular coding jobs, salary and required skills
• Improve problem-solving skills to give your career the boost it needs
• How to wake up early and work on your dreams with the 50/30/10/10 rule
• Why smart people struggle to achieve success
• Having a diverse team might help you bring home the winning title