10,000 hours or 10 minutes a day: what really improves typing speed

Captain Ratatype · 16 Sep 26 · 2 min read · 698 views

10,000 hours or 10 minutes a day: what really improves typing speed

Many of us have heard the rule that if you spend 10,000 hours practicing something, practice turns into mastery. I’m not arguing with that. But I do have a question: “What happens if you spend all 10,000 of those hours doing it the wrong way?” For example, typing the wrong way.

Let's assume that, starting from our student years, we spend about 2.5 hours a day typing (studying, then office work, personal chats, and so on). Over a lifetime, that adds up to roughly 45,000 hours spent typing on a keyboard. In other words, we should all type fast, like true masters. But is that really the case?

Typing fast and typing correctly aren't always the same thing

If you think you type fast, pay attention to how many fingers you actually use when typing on a keyboard. Two? Four? Can you use all ten? And how many typos do you usually make while typing? Five percent? Ten?

If you master touch typing through proper typing practice, you can increase your typing speed by at least 15% and cut your typos to almost zero.

How a typing tutor helps you type better

The whole secret to fast typing is muscle memory. Your fingers learn where to press, and you end up typing at a pro's speed. But building that muscle memory is exactly what a typing tutor is for. It doesn't matter how many hours a day you spend typing in documents or chats if you're still using just two or three fingers.

Ten minutes of regular daily practice — that's what actually makes a difference. Typing practice is what gets you real results.

Start learning

How fast are you really? Take the typing speed test and find out

Don't just take our word for it? Take the online typing speed test — it only takes a minute, and the result will instantly show you how many words per minute you type right now and how many mistakes you make. Then try practicing with our typing tutor and compare your results a month from now.

Take the test

It's a great fit for anyone who wants to make their learning systematic. And once you've built the basic skills, you can mix things up: try learning in another language, or work on your accuracy with the Ratashooter and Ratarace typing games.

By the way, if you ever decide to get a typing speed certificate, it'll be a nice bonus for your resume — and for jobs that require passing a typing speed test, that certificate can sometimes literally open doors.