Typing is one of the most valuable professional skills you can develop. Whether you’re writing emails, creating content, coding, studying, or managing projects, faster typing allows you to capture ideas more efficiently and spend less time fighting the keyboard.

I’m a very fast typist. Over the years, I gradually increased my typing speed to more than 100 words per minute while maintaining strong accuracy, and typing has become almost invisible to me when I’m writing.

I didn’t get there because of a special keyboard or some unusual natural talent. I got there through years of touch typing, repetition, accuracy-focused practice, and gradually pushing beyond my comfortable speed.

If you want to learn how to type faster on a keyboard, these are the techniques that have made the biggest difference for me.

How Fast Is a Good Typing Speed?

A typing speed of 100 words per minute is very fast for general computer use. You don’t need to type that quickly to be highly productive, though.

For most people, the goal shouldn’t be reaching an arbitrary number. The more useful goal is becoming fast enough that your typing speed doesn’t interfere with your ability to think, write, communicate, or complete your work.

I personally find that typing above 100 words per minute gives me enough speed that my keyboard rarely becomes a bottleneck when I’m writing. I can concentrate on the idea rather than consciously thinking about where each letter is located.

Speed matters, but speed with accuracy is much more useful than raw words per minute.

If you really want a number, I think 50-75 words per minute is very respectable.

Typing Speed General Assessment

• Under 30 WPM Slow
• 30–50 WPM Developing
• 50–70 WPM Solid
• 70–90 WPM Fast
• 90–100 WPM Very fast
• 100+ WPM Excellent

These are rough benchmarks rather than strict definitions. Accuracy, the type of work you’re doing, and your ability to maintain your speed over longer periods matter just as much as a single typing-test score.

Learn to Touch Type Without Looking at the Keyboard

If you want to increase your typing speed, learning to touch type is probably the most important skill you can develop.

Touch typing means knowing where the keys are without looking down at the keyboard. Your fingers learn the positions through repetition, allowing your eyes to remain on the screen while your hands type automatically.

In Elementary School, I took a computer class on one of those old-as-a-dinosaur Macintosh machines.

The teachers made us play Number Crunchers, Oregon Trail, and a few other keyboard based games that have been lost to antiquity. But we weren’t allowed to simply play at our leisure.

The teachers placed pieces of computer paper over our hands and keyboards so we couldn’t see the letters.

That piece of paper stopped us from looking at the keyboard.

To win the game, you had to take typing seriously.

You had to memorize where the letters were.

If you’re constantly staring at the keyboard while you type, you will never increase your typing speed. You must throw away the crutch of your own vision.

Stop looking at the keyboard and start looking at your screen.

You’ll get some letters wrong. You’ll backspace a lot.

But guess what? You’re making a very powerful mental connection between correct finger placement.

Touch typing forces your brain to memorize key locations rather than relying on visual confirmation.

Develop Muscle Memory Through Repetition

One of the biggest breakthroughs in typing speed is learning to recognize the rhythm of common words and phrases.

Most fast typists develop this rhythm naturally through repetition.

As you stop looking at the keyboard, you’ll notice a rhythm begins to develop for common words and phrases.

For example, find “O” and “K”. Now place your right middle finger on “O” and your right index finger on “K”. Type the following:

OKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOK

Did you hear that? Did you feel that? That’s rhythm. That’s speed.

How fast did you go?

Now, add a space after “OK” using your left thumb. See how fast you can do this without making a mistake:

OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK

Beautiful, isn’t it? Each word has incredible rhythm.

As you repeatedly type common words and phrases, the movement becomes automatic. Over time, your fingers begin moving with very little conscious thought.

Typing also becomes more enjoyable as you get more comfortable.

Growing up, I spent plenty of time playing video games. Repeatedly entering the same commands and shortcuts helped reinforce keyboard familiarity and muscle memory.

Prioritize Accuracy Before Speed

Many people make the mistake of chasing typing speed before developing accuracy.

But accuracy creates speed.

Every mistake interrupts your rhythm. You have to notice the error, stop your forward movement, move your finger back to the incorrect character, correct it, and then find your place again.

If you repeatedly practice typing quickly while making mistakes, you can reinforce inefficient movements rather than becoming genuinely faster.

My goal when practicing is not simply to type as fast as possible. It’s to type as quickly as I can while keeping my accuracy high.

Once accurate finger movements become automatic, increasing speed becomes much easier and even writing assignments are less exhausting tasks.

Practice Slightly Faster Than Your Comfort Zone

There comes a time when you’ve found some word and phrase rhythm, you know exactly where the letters on the keyboard are without looking, but you’re not getting any faster.

You have to push yourself. Typing is like any other activity.

• If you want to grow bigger muscles, you increase the difficulty (time under tension, weight, volume, speed, etc.).
• If you want to score better on a test, you increase your understanding.
• If you want to have faster or more accurate typing skills, you must mentally choose to do so.

One of the simplest ways to increase typing speed is to practice slightly beyond your current comfort zone.

The next time an idea pops into your head, write it down immediately. Capturing ideas before they disappear is one of the simplest ways to get extra typing practice throughout the day.

Most typing improvement happens when you challenge yourself to maintain accuracy while gradually increasing speed.

Small improvements compound over time because typing speed is a skill, not a talent.

The more time you spend looking at the screen instead of the keyboard, building muscle memory, practicing consistently, and prioritizing accuracy, the faster you’ll become.

Most people won’t double their typing speed overnight, but steady improvement compounds surprisingly quickly. Even gaining an extra 10 or 20 words per minute can save countless hours over the course of a year.

Use Typing Tests to Measure Your Progress

A typing test gives you a simple way to measure whether your practice is actually working.

Don’t obsess over your score every time you type. Instead, take an occasional test under similar conditions and track your average words per minute and accuracy.

Look for trends rather than individual results. You might have an unusually fast or slow attempt on any given day, but your average performance over time tells you much more about whether your typing is improving.

I recommend measuring both words per minute and accuracy. A faster score isn’t necessarily an improvement if you’re making significantly more mistakes.

The key is simple: practice intentionally and let speed develop naturally from accuracy.

Like most skills, typing speed improves gradually through repetition. Focus on accuracy first, practice consistently, and let speed develop over time.

For more information on increasing your typing speed and becoming more efficient in life, check out the informative KeyHero and the adrenaline producing Type Racer.

A Simple Typing Practice Routine

If you’re serious about increasing your typing speed, you don’t need to spend hours practicing. A few focused minutes of deliberate practice can be enough.

Try this:

• Take a short typing test to establish your current speed and accuracy.
• Spend several minutes practicing without looking at the keyboard.
• Focus on accuracy rather than maximum speed.
• Practice slightly faster than your normal comfortable pace.
• Repeat the same type of practice consistently.
• Take another typing test periodically to measure your progress.

The goal isn’t to win every practice session. It’s to gradually make accurate typing faster and more automatic.

Final Thoughts

Typing faster isn’t really about learning a trick that suddenly makes your fingers move faster. It’s about making accurate typing increasingly automatic through repetition, muscle memory, and deliberate practice.

I’ve been typing for decades, and getting above 100 words per minute didn’t happen overnight. It came from years of touch typing, practicing accuracy, developing a natural rhythm, and gradually pushing beyond my comfortable speed.

You don’t need to reach 100 words per minute to benefit. Even a modest improvement can make a meaningful difference when you spend hours every week writing, working, studying, or communicating at a keyboard.

The goal is simple: make typing fast enough and accurate enough that your keyboard stops getting in the way of your thinking.

If you practice consistently, focus on accuracy first, and gradually challenge yourself to type faster, your speed can improve much more than you might expect.