Are there any tips to relocating your right hand after typing backspace?
I've found that making one error while typing usually leads to more errors for me - and that is because after pressing backspace, I will have to relocate my right hand so that it is on the home row again. Searching for the J key takes too much time when I'm using e.g. typeracer, and just going with what feels right to me is very error prone. How do you guys handle it?
Posted Mar 20, 2022, 3:50 PM UTC
13
These are the main things that helped me break 100 wpm in regards to errors:
I always use proper form hitting each key with the appropriate finger (eg. always pinky finger for backspace) in order to reduce stretching and build proper muscle memory.
I always bring each hand back to the home row when it's not actively used (but not after each individual keystroke). This improves my consistency as each key requires the same gesture to hit it most of the time. This is important because it makes it easier to revert back to the home row since I just retrace the same gesture in reverse. For example, to hit the backspace, I slide my hand upwards a bit towards the top-right corner of the keyboard and also twist my hand to make it easier to reach and then I reverse twist and slide back ending back on the home row where I started without having to feel for the bump on the J key.
I only feel the bumps on the F & J keys during the initial first time when placing my hands on the keyboard. After that I always revert back to the home row by reversing the gesture that I used when moving away from the home row. This gets rid of the delay of searching for these keys.
The fastest way to deal with errors is to reduce the frequency of them by focusing on accuracy. Practice accuracy drills. Typing slightly slower with higher accuracy is faster.
When I make a mistake, I don't waste time by finding out exactly where the mistake was and go back just the correct amount to fix it. Instead, I always delete the entire word using a single Ctrl + Backspace gesture and retype the entire word even if I only mistyped a single character. This is much faster as it allows me to remain in a fast flow so that I can continue to type entire words at a time instead of reverting back to the slow per-character approach. This is also really important as it helps you build proper muscle memory for how to type that word correctly in 1 go otherwise you don't really learn from that mistake.
Strain increases errors over time so focus on ergonomics and comfort above everything else. If typing a key feels awkward then experiment with slight changes until you find a more comfortable approach as that will end up being faster. For example, hitting all keys from the sa,e location without gliding your hands (especially the right hand) is less comfortable and slower compared to allowing your hands to glide a bit towards farther keys.
There are a bunch more tips here:
https://roosterdan.medium.com/how-to-type-100-words-per-minute-a780fd80fd27