21-02-20 Saturday Covid-19 Day 343 I - Touch Typing

This week I have mostly been re-learning how to touch type. It is a chore, but the first time around, for some reason I learned the layout of the keyboard with my index fingers resting on G and H rather than on F and J. All I can think is that I am some kind of doughnut.

It has taken some time, and I am still typing very slowly, but I am beginning to make fewer mistakes and type more fluently. It means my fingers are less cramped on the keyboard, which is a good thing, but it is weird having to retrain my hands to reach for different keys.

Sometimes I do have to give up and go back to a “hunt and peck” approach, especially if I am on IM with a colleague, but a slower pace is good sometimes as it gives me time to think through and review what I am writing.

I am hoping that time taken now will lead to fluid writing at some point but we’re not there yet... Hopefully only another week or so might be needed before I’m back to feeling useful. There are a number of letters which I am getting used to, so hopefully that level of comfort will spread across the keyboard as the days pass.

It is quite amazing once a level of touch typing is achieved, as you can see words and thoughts appear almost without effort on the screen, once the hands and fingers have built up the muscle memory to find keys without effort. I have to remember that now, while I’m typing in a halting, staccato fashion, that some day this will all be worth it.

TTFN.