How to Type Faster: 12 Habits That Actually Work

Typing speed isn't a talent. It's a skill built from thousands of small, correct repetitions. The people who type 90 WPM aren't moving their fingers dramatically faster than you; they've removed the hesitations, glances and corrections that slow everyone else down. Here are twelve habits that do exactly that.

Foundations

1. Sit so your hands can relax

Feet flat, back supported, screen at eye level, elbows roughly at a right angle. Your wrists should float slightly above the keyboard rather than resting heavily on the desk. Tension is the hidden enemy of speed: tight shoulders and wrists make fingers sluggish and tired.

2. Use the home row as your anchor

Rest your left fingers on A S D F and your right on J K L ;. The bumps on F and J let you find home without looking. Every reach should start and end here. This is what makes typing feel automatic. If you've never learned it, start with our touch typing lessons.

3. Stop looking at the keyboard

Every glance down costs a fraction of a second, and makes you lose your place in the text. Cover your hands with a cloth if you must. It feels slower for a few days, then suddenly much faster. Use an on-screen keyboard (like the one in our lessons) as your map instead.

Technique

4. Accuracy first, always

A mistake costs three keystrokes: the wrong one, backspace and the right one. It also breaks your rhythm. Aim for 96–98% accuracy before pushing speed. You'll be surprised how much faster "careful" feels after a few weeks.

5. Find a steady rhythm

Fast typists type evenly, like a metronome, not in bursts followed by pauses. Check the consistency score and the speed chart after a typing test. A jagged line means you're rushing easy words and stalling on hard ones.

6. Read one word ahead

While your fingers type the current word, your eyes should already be on the next one. This overlap is one of the biggest differences between average and fast typists. It takes practice, so start by consciously glancing ahead on longer tests.

7. Type words, not letters

Common words like the, and, that and with should become single movements. Your fingers learn them as patterns. Practising the most common words (our Top 100 words lesson) builds these patterns fast.

8. Use both shift keys

Hold shift with the little finger of the opposite hand: right shift for capitals typed with the left hand, left shift for the right. Using one shift key for everything twists your hand and slows every capital letter.

9. Keep keystrokes light

You only need enough force to register the key. Hammering wastes energy and slows the return to home position. Light, quick taps are faster and kinder to your wrists.

Practice that works

10. Practise little and often

Muscle memory consolidates between sessions, especially during sleep. Fifteen minutes every day beats two hours on Sunday. A daily streak (like the flame counter in our top bar) is a surprisingly effective motivator.

11. Train your weak keys deliberately

Everyone has a few keys that trip them up. After each test, look at which letters you missed and drill them specifically. Our results screen has a Drill weak keys button, and your progress page shows a heatmap of your slowest, most error-prone keys.

12. Make it fun so you keep going

The best practice routine is the one you stick to. Mix tests with typing games, race bots in Typing Race, or paste text you actually care about into custom text practice.

A simple 4-week plan

Track every result on your progress page and look at the trend, not single scores. Some days will be slower; the weekly average is what matters.