Typing as a mindfulness exercise

Typing speed is one of those things a lot of programmers strongly dismiss as being highly irrelevant to overall productivity.

Yet there is a sizable contingent of tech workers that are passionate about their special keyboards, whether that be their custom rainbow LEDs, their ergonomic three-piece, or their 90 dB mechanicals. The time and money these people spend to find the perfect keyboard must be paying off in some way, and I have to presume at least some of that payoff comes in the form of a productivity boost.

Somehow there seem to be fewer moral objections against buying niche keyboards than there are against a programmer trying to improve their typing speed. Is this because keyboard hardware is more about enjoyment than productivity? If you spend an hour building a custom keyboard you’re a fun geek, but if you spend an hour trying to improve your typing technique, that’s stupid because typing speed doesn’t matter.

What if typing could become inherently more enjoyable by virtue of some intentional practice?

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記号列のタイピングを矯正する

数字記号列のタイピングが作業効率のボトルネックになっているように感じはじめ、かつこれは簡単に取りのぞける類いの障害のように思えたので、遅い理由を解明して改善した。

まずは記号列のタイピング練習ができるサイトで、現状を確認する。

数字記号のタイピング練習サイトの入力画面
手元を見ずにどれだけ正確に打てるのか試してみてほしい (Online Typing Tutor)

ここでじっくり自分の打ち癖を分析してみたところ、弱いのは以下の点であった。

  1. 57 の記号順が完璧に記憶できていない
  2. 6 を左右どちらの指で打つのか定まっていない
  3. -= を打つときの小指がたまにブレる
記号列の苦手なキー

それぞれの弱点に対して、改善のための対策を立ててみる。

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