Touch Typing
Image via WikipediaEvery now and then, I get people asking me how I manage to do it all. Maintain several blogs, that is. I really believe that the ability to touch type makes a HUGE difference to my productivity.
Depending on the topic at hand, I can spin out a blog post in a matter of minutes. Of course, that isn’t always the case as my thought processes don’t always keep up with my fingers. And I do prefer to read and reread my posts before publishing them.
I was reminded of this while reading “5 minutes to Write a Valuable Blog post” by Suzie Cheel. She was issuing a challenge, to herself as well as readers, to see if a blog post could be composed in under 5 minutes.
I’m yet to take her up on the challenge. I started writing this post about half an hour ago. In between I have written a post for Lightening Online, made some promite on bread for my 4 year old and visited my garden.
Focus isn’t one of my stronger points! 
One of these days I’ll actually get focused and time myself to see how long it really does take me to compose a blog post. Naturally it varies. But it would be an interesting challenge all the same.
Touch typing isn’t just a valuable skill for composing posts though. Commenting and responding to comments is an important part of blog networking. The ability to touch type enables informative comments to be made in a matter of seconds. The faster you can type, the easier it is to fit more comments into the time you have available.
What if you can’t touch type?
It’s never too late. The internet world is a fabulous resource for developing new skills and touching up old ones.
Here are a few sites that enable you to develop the skill of touch typing:
There are plenty of programs listed in google but not all are available FREE.
Even just spending 10 minutes a day developing this skill is likely to pay dividends in the future. It certainly can save a LOT of valuable time.
If you’re someone who plans to blog over the long-term, I’d consider it a time investment well spent.
Just wanted to add:
While Entrecard browsing (when I really should be cleaning ) I came across this post on How Fast Can You Type which mentions the site TypeRacer. Now there is a FUN way to practise your typing AND lose a day or two!!! 
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Comments
Way back in my first days in high school we were tested to see what level we would be studying at (I made the A grade)and we were asked if we wanted the general education stream or the commercial stream. Upon finding out that commercial meant secretarial training with the shorthand and typing, I opted for the general with the science. And I was perfectly happy. Until recent years when I got a computer and discovered that typing isn’t as easy as it looks. I’ve tried to learn touch typing, but don’t seem to be able to “get it”. I’ll check out the sites you listed and maybe give it another go.
touch typing saves you a lot of time especially if your managing few blogs and contributing heavily in forums.
River - I think it takes quite a bit of patience at first. You’ll get there if you just keep at it. I think at times the problem is that touch typing starts off slower than the 2 finger peck method (which some people can actually do quite quickly) but if you don’t practise, you don’t get better. Short term pain for long term gain as they say. 
Nishadha - absolutely. I took typing at school for the bludge and it’s ended up being one of my most useful skills!
Suzie - time. Yeah! That ever elusive stuff we wish we could bottle cos it would make us a fortune.
I took it at school because I’d already figured out that I would be using computers for the rest of my life. None of the other guys in Comp Sci had figured out that typing fast would be a useful skill.
These days I’ve become very attached to my Kinesis FreeStyle keyboard which would be very difficult to use if you don’t touch type. A picture is linked here:
http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/freestyle-vip_648×339.jpg
I’m so used to having my hands separated by about 20cm that I find using normal keyboards a bit of a trial for anything over a few minutes of writing. But then again, because I’ve set things up so that I’m very comfortable when I’m writing, I can stay at the keyboard a lot longer and get more stuff done.
That is indeed a very COOL keyboard!!!! I imagine it would take a little bit of getting used to.
I’m wishing I’d taken at least a little bit of Computing at school then maybe I wouldn’t be such an airhead on all things computing now. Or maybe I still would be. After all, I never did quite get the hang of MATHS despite taking it at school.
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Hmmm… I should do the timing thing sometime too. But I think it’s bleeding obvious that some of my blog entries are written in WELL under 5 minutes…