Typing is one of the most important skills of the modern age, and being able to type quickly and accurately is a requirement for many office jobs. While practice makes perfect, it is more important that you practice correctly, for it is very easy to get into bad habits which can take a lot of time and effort to change. The following tips will help you to hone your typing skills to perfection.

1 – Use a Good Keyboard

While a proficient typist shouldn’t have much of a problem typing on almost any keyboard, it is a good idea to practice using a keyboard with which you feel comfortable. Any normal desktop computer keyboard should be fine, although there are also special ergonomic designs which are more comfortable to use and present a significantly lower risk of repetitive strain injury. When you are focusing on practicing your keyboard skills, try to stick to standard-sized keyboards, and avoid typing on laptop keyboards, since these are considerably inferior to their full-size counterparts.

2 – Get Comfortable

Sitting with a good posture in a comfortable and ergonomic chair is not only important for your health – it is also important for learning to type better and becoming more productive overall. Once you make yourself comfortable, you will more effectively be able to focus on the accuracy and speed of your typing, and this will also make typing for longer periods more bearable. Other important factors to consider include the size, resolution and quality of your screen. Minimizing distractions and learning to focus on the task at hand will also help to improve your accuracy.

3 – Change Your Technique

Almost all of us have at least some experience of typing, but few people can actually type like a professional. The main reason for poor typing being so common is that people tend to develop bad habits over time, and it can be very difficult to get rid of these. Professional typists use both hands on the keyboard without looking at the keyboard at all. Others try to get by just using one hand or two fingers while staring down at the keyboard most of the time, but this is much less efficient. To start with, align the fingers of your right hand with J, K, L and ; and the fingers of your left hand with A, S, D and F.

4 – Practice Regularly

While you might not necessarily need to spend time in front of the computer solely for improving your typing skills, it is wise to keep the correct technique in mind whenever you are sitting in front of the computer. This should be the case whether you are typing an email or chatting online. Try not to get lazy just because what you are actually typing might not be particularly important. Using every opportunity to help improve your typing skills will make you learn faster without having to dedicate time specifically to learning how to type better.

5 – Take Typing Tests

As you practice typing, you will likely start to see an improvement in a matter of weeks or even days. However, taking typing tests can be great for your motivation while also helping you to further perfect your typing skills. There are many free online typing tests in which you copy some written text to see how quickly and accurately you can type. Such tests will give you a report stating how many characters or words you can type per minute on average. However, do not forget that accuracy is more important than speed. Having to make constant corrections will slow you down a lot.

6 – Try Typing Games and Tutors

Learning how to type doesn’t always have to be a boring and tedious task. The old-school typing tutors might not be much fun to use, but there are many other solutions available these days. Some of the most enjoyable and easiest typing tutors to practice with are those which include interactive typing games to help you hone your skills. Others will also help to motivate you by frequently providing progress reports and interesting statistics. There are both free and paid typing tutors, including entirely Web-based solutions.

In conclusion, good typing is something that should eventually become a habit. It may take some time, but if you keep your typing skills in mind whenever you are sitting in front of the computer, quick, professional and error-free typing will eventually become second nature.