Remember when typing used to be an occasional or pretty optional thing?  As we all know too well, email changed all that.

I'm reminded of a friend.  He is very high energy and works long hours.  It is not unusual to get an email from him in the early hours of the morning.  Sometimes the emails can be several pages long. 

Here is the painful part – watching him type by hunt and peck, one finger, per hand, at a time.  I can’t help but think how much time he could save by being a better typist.  A 30 minute email could be cut down to 10 minutes or less.  Slow typing can be a huge time drain.

I put typing off for a long time.  I never took the typing class in summer school at junior high.  My home was a half block north of the school – I watched my classmates go in and felt sorry for them.

That all changed.  I am pretty good at typing now - around 45 words per minute.

So how did I get over the hump?  What turned the kid who skipped typing class into a typing evangelist?

A software program called Mavis Beacon.  As a young adult, I was pretty good at video games.  The video game style of teaching in Mavis really appealed to me.  One program was a racing game.  For each word you missed, a bug hits the windshield.  You keep going until you can’t see anymore.

It didn’t take long either.  I didn’t set aside special time.  I learned while I was traveling.  When the airplane flight was nearing the end, I would fire up Mavis and do a lesson in 10 minutes. 

                                                                   

Another friend of mine who is part of our C12 group is drinking the Kool-aid.  He is former pro baseball player with big fingers.  He took some ribbing for being a slow hunt and pecker but he’s keeping up with his typing lessons and getting up in the 20’s per minute.

One acid test - "Do you look down at the keyboard to type?"  When you played basketball, you were taught to dribble with your head up.  Same goes for typing.

Looking for a time saving idea?  It just might be in your fingers and be worth the exchange-a couple hours a month invested returns saved time to you daily.