How I Type REALLY Fast 156 Words Per Minute

(tranquil ambient music)
- Hey friends,

welcome back to the channel.

If you're new here, my name is Ali,

and I'm a doctor based in the UK.

And in this video,

we're talking about a topic
very close to my heart,

which is how to type faster.

Now having a ridiculously
fast typing speed

is one of my superpowers in life.

And I think anyone can become
at least twice as productive

if you just improve your typing speed.

And so in this video, we're gonna talk

about the benefits of
improving your typing speed.

And then I'm gonna go over
eight actionable practical tips

on how you can personally
improve your typing speed

so that you can become a
productivity grease monkey.

In case you're wondering,

I hit around 155 words
per minute on a good day.

And if I'm feeling particularly sluggish,

I will be hovering around the
140 words per minute mark.

For context, the average typing speed

is around 45 words per minute.

And if you're watching this video,

you're probably a nerd like me,

so yours are probably
significantly higher.

And according to Google,

you need to be at around
80 words per minute

to qualify as a professional
typist, whatever that means.

Regardless

of whether you wanna be a
professional typist or not,

I think there's some very good reasons

to improve our typing speed,

to try and get it as high as possible.

The first and most important one

is that it just really impresses people.

Like when people see me typing at work,

I work as a doctor in
case you didn't know.

The single biggest
compliment I've ever gotten

through my two years of being a doctor,

is that, wow, you type really fast.

Maybe that's not the kind

of compliment I want when I'm a doctor,

but still it's nice to hear.

And everyone is always so impressed.

Like, oh my God, where
did you learn to type?

And I'm just like, well,
you know, I misspent youth

and they're always like,
oh hahaha, very funny, Ali.

Secondly, everything in life

is based on a computer these days.

If you can increase the speed

at which you interact with a computer,

if you can get the
computer to respond to you

kind of as close to you
thinking that thing as possible,

then you just like

so much more productive
in front of a computer.

It's not just for typing heavy things,

like typing essays and
whatever you do for work,

it's also just in general

in terms of interacting
with the web browser

and going on websites and
sending messages to friends,

all of that stuff becomes
quicker and therefore

we become more productive
when we can type faster.

And thirdly, to be honest for me,

the closer my typing speed
gets to my thinking speed,

the more creative I think I become

because when you're writing something,

like whether it's a first
draught for a blog post

or a project or an essay, or
even a script for a video,

when you're writing
something, the first draught

you'd always be just kind of a brain dump

without really stopping to
think about it too much.

And so when I'm planning videos

or writing blog posts or
email newsletters, link below

if you wanna subscribe to
my weekly email newsletter

when I'm typing out the first draught,

I can almost type at the rate that I think

and therefore I just get stuff
onto a page so much quicker.

And a lot of people ask that,

Ali, how do you have time
to do all of these things?

YouTube channel, blog,
newsletter, podcast?

How do you have time to do all this stuff

while you're working as a doctor?

And my answer is, well,

I'm taking a break from
medicine right now.

And apart from all the
general productivity advice

that I've given out on
this channel in the past,

I think just being able to type super fast

makes such a big difference to everything

because it just makes life so much better.

So that's why we should be
improving on typing speed.

I've actively worked to improve mine

and it's had a big knock
on effect on my life

and hopefully one day it
will help me attract a mate.

Let's now go over eight ways,

eight practical actionable ways

that you can improve your typing speed.

All right, so step one involves

learning some keyboard
shortcuts for fixing mistakes.

And if you don't know these already,

these are an absolute game changer.

So I'm gonna type some stuff

and I'll show you how I fix a mistake.

(types on keyboard)

Okay, I've typed in, "Somewhere
over the rainbow wau up."

So I wanna write "way up".

Now the old school way of
fixing this mistake is going

back, back, back, back.

Y, space.

You know, it's like using
backspace multiple times.

But a general tip for
improving your typing

is that whenever you find
yourself using backspace

more than twice, there's probably
a better way of doing it.

And so, if I take that typo back,

what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
use option and backspace.

And what that does is that
deletes an entire word.

Option, backspace to
delete an entire word.

And I will show you

on a more legit keyboard
what that looks like.

So if I type the type again "wau up".

I'm sure this is aligned.

I'm just hitting option

and backspace to delete the entire word.

And this is absolutely revolutionary.

If instead you're one of those
heathens that uses windows,

then don't worry, you can
also do this on windows.

You press control and backspace
and on Windows that works

and that deletes a whole word.

So that just changes the game completely

because now you're not
(types frantically)

pressing backspace multiple
times to delete mistakes,

you're doing option + backspace
or control + backspace

and then you're more
efficiently fixing mistakes

as you go along.

The other really useful keyboard short cut

which is on Mac, but not on Windows

is Cmd + backspace to
delete an entire line.

This is helpful in fewer circumstances

than being able to do to
delete individual words,

but that's also an important one to know.

All right, tip number two for
improving your typing speed

is by discovering a website
called 10fastfingers.com.

And semi-regularly doing
typing tests on here.

I discovered this website when
I was, I think, 13 years old.

I am 26 now.

So basically half a lifetime
ago, I discovered this website.

And I think at the time,

my speed when I was in
like the eighth grade

was about 70 words per minute, maybe 80,

it was between 70 and 80 words per minute,

'cause I was still a nerd at that point.

But just a few times a month,

I'll just hop onto 10fastfingers
and do some practise,

do one of these typing speed tests.

And just over time, my typing speed

has just improved exponentially,
or not exponentially,

has improved linearly based
on just practising the tests.

So let's do one now and
I'll show you in real time

and then we'll speed up the rest of it

so you don't have to
sit through all of it.

Okay, clearly I'm not gonna
get above 145 in this session.

I feel like it's 'cause
I'm quite hot right now.

But anyway, this is how
10fastfingers works.

But yeah, a few months ago,
a friend of mine, Angus

was on about 65 words per minute.

And then just for once a
week for about 10 minutes,

he's just been practising on 10fastfingers

and his typing speed now
is up to round about 95.

So that's about a 50% increase

by practising 10 minutes here and there

for the last few months.

So it's very doable to
get quite quick at typing

when you're doing these
tests somewhat regularly.

Tip number three is another
website called Keybr

which is like a typing
lesson type website.

I don't spend a lot of
time on this personally.

I mostly prefer to use 10fastfingers,

but this is quite nice,

it sort of trains your typing speed

based on what your own weaknesses are.

So let's switch keyboards back.

What it's doing, if we
look over here, it says,

"Lessons key set" and
it select a few keys.

And current key is E.

And so I'll just do a
little bit of it first

and then I'll show you how it works.

(types on keyboard)

So over there, my speed was a 104.2.

Made one error, this
was my score, whatever,

but the point is, is that it's worked out,

essentially, it was just
testing me on E, N, I, T, R, L.

Now it's gonna test me
on S and a few other keys

and we'll see how I do on that.

So.

So you saw over here that my speed was 75,

gain was minus 26.

And so what it's doing
is that as I'm typing,

it's figuring out which specific

letters on the keyboard
I'm struggling with,

and then it's gonna train
me on those more often.

And so this is a little bit frustrating

because a lot of the words
that it's making you type out

aren't actually real words.

(types frantically)

And that's why I prefer 10fastfingers

for just general practise

and also testing myself
because it's actual words.

And I think 10fastfingers

is based on like the 300 most common words

in the English language
or something like that.

So more like a real world test

and practise of typing speed.

But this website keybr.com

is good for getting those little bits

that are a little bit more pesky.

So I occasionally have a
little dabble with this.

Tip four is that if we wanna
improve our middle row typing practice speed

and general digital productivity,

productivity in front of computer,

we wanna move away from using the mouse

to using the keyboard for
absolutely everything.

So on Mac, the app that I like
to use for this is Alfred,

which is sort of a
replacement to Spotlight.

And so I don't even show my doc,

I like never ever look at
my doc to open up apps.

Instead, if I wanna open an app,

I'll use Alfred + command + space bar

and I'll just type in the app.

So if I want a Safari, if I want Spotify,

I'll just go command,
space bar S-p-o-t, enter,

Spotify comes up, command,
space bar, "bear",

you know, and so on.

So like, I will never ever use
this screen to select apps.

I will almost never use the mouse

to drag over to the dock to click it.

And A, that just makes me
so much more productive

when I'm on a computer,

because now I can think of doing something

and then it immediately
happens with the app,

Alfred, I can also search for files

and Spotlight does some of this.

If I wanna do a Google
Search or an Amazon Search,

I'll just type it in.

So let's see,

what's the, so if I type
in "average typing speed".

The nice thing about Alfred
which Spotlight doesn't do

crucially is that whatever you
type in, if it's not an app

or a search term for
like a file or something,

it will automatically
search Google for it.

And so you can Google things very quickly.

If I wanna search for something on Amazon,

I will type in "ama and
then type in, I dunno,

"wheel of time".

And it'll recognise I'm
trying to search Amazon.

And so these day to day
things that I'm doing,

I'm doing a lot quicker because of Alfred,

but alongside my own
typing speed is improving

because now I'm sort of
interacting with the keyboard

for everything I'm doing on a computer,

rather than using a mouse to click.

And so even if I'm using
any kind of new app,

anytime I find myself
having to use the mouse,

I think in my head,
okay, this is sub optimal

and I will Google what
the keyboard shortcuts are

for that particular app,

so that I can kind of learn
the keyboard shortcuts as I go.

And I think switching to
this keyboard first mentality

which I did in around about 2012, 2013,

that's really helped
improve my typing speed,

'cause now we're just kind of
keyboard warrior a lot more

than being a mouse warrior.

Tip five is as you're
improving your typing speed,

you basically never ever
want to look at the keyboard.

You know, the whole point of touch typing

is that you are able to
(typing on keyboard)

type whatever you want without
looking at the keyboard.

And I think it's very tempting

to look at the keyboard
initially, but like,

even if you're really slow,

I think the way to train the
muscle is by going slower,

but not looking at the keyboard

unless for example, you make a mistake

and you really have to,
because what we're training is,

we're not really training our ability

to see where the keys are and hit them,

we're training our ability
to not see where the keys are

and hit them.

And so like in the past, when
my typing speed was slower,

I used to give myself the ability

to look at the keyboard when I needed to,

but now I kind of force myself,

no, I'm not allowed to
look at the keyboard

and I will always try and
kind of correct mistakes

even without looking at the keyboard

because correcting mistakes

is an important part of
improving our own typing speed.

All right, tip number six

is that we always wanna be returning

our fingers to the resting
position of A, S, D, F, J, K, L,

semicolon.

And this is very easy to do

because on most key,
basically all keyboards,

the F and the J keys

are gonna have these little bits on them.

And so your index fingers
of the left and right hand

can always return to this position.

And I think this is
just a, this generally,

it's kind of like when
you're playing a piano,

you wanna return to the rest position.

Like this is the rest position.

And it's easy enough to get here

by feeling for these little indentations

on the F and the J key from

wherever you are on the keyboard.

Tip number seven is a little bit weird

and that is try to make noise.

So I'm not sure how legit this advice is

in terms of like a professional typist.

But to be honest, I've always found that,

when I'm typing loudly,
I tend to type faster.

And if it's like a quiet room
or a lecture or something

and I'm trying not to make noise,

then I end up typing a lot slower.

And I dunno if this has
something to do with the noise

but I think just the mentality of,

(typing on keyboard)

I'm typing as loudly as I can in a way.

(chuckles)

I don't know, at least for me,

it helps me get into the mindset

of sort of like,

(exhales rhythmically)
typing typing harder.

It ends up being a lot louder

on a mechanical keyboard like this,

but even on a sort of less loud keyboard,

I tend to hit the keys
with quite a lot of force.

Possibly I'm being a bit
inefficient because in theory,

any excess force is wasted
force, but I find that,

(types on keyboard)

yeah, when I'm trying to be loud,

my typing speed just gets better.

So maybe that's another tip

that you guys can experiment with.

And finally, we always wanna be treating

improving our typing
speed kind of like game,

and we always wanna be improving.

Like for me,

I know the next stage of
my improvement as a typist'

cause I'm trying to hit 200,
I think 200 words per minute

would be a good thing to aim for.

I think the next stage for me

is to use my left pinky more often,

'cause with the ASDF method,
what you're supposed to do

is you're supposed to use
your pinky to hit the A key,

the Q key, the one, two and shift.

But really the only
thing I use my pinky for

is to hit the shift key and I
will use my left ring finger

for hitting, you know, Q, A, Z, one, two.

So.

Yeah, basically, I reserve
my pinky just for shift,

and that's probably suboptimal,

like people say you should
use your pinky more often.

So even though my typing
speed is quite high,

sort of 130s to 140s in this
session, 150s on a good day,

I'm still trying to improve.

And I kind of treat it as a bit of a game.

And I think that's one of
the most important things,

like it's a skill that can be improved

and my life has significantly improved

since I developed the
ability to type fast.

And so, yeah, I would
just encourage you to

treat it like a game,

treat it like a constant
thingy of improvement

and then you too will type

like a productivity grease monkey.

And finally tip number nine,
little bonus tip for you guys,

is that, well why are we
trying to type faster?

Usually because,

well I mean, apart from
trying to attract a spouse,

we're typing faster because
we want to be more productive.

But as I said at the start of the video,

being more productive

isn't just about how fast
you can kind of like,

(exhales rhythmically)
bash the keys on a keyboard,

it's also about a load of other things.

The productivity equation,
as I like to call it

is productivity equals useful output

divided by time multiplied
by the fun factor.

And if you wanna learn more

about my own tapes of productivity,

you should definitely
check out my productivity

Skillshare class,

which is all about the
fundamentals of productivity,

and in that we talk about the equation,

we talk about a mental model of the pilot,

the plane and the engineer,

which is how I like to
think about productivity.

And we talk about the three myths,

the three powers and the
three laws of productivity.

I think so far about 10,000
people have taken that class

and it's got like amazing reviews.

If you wanna check out
that class for free,

you should hit the link below

to get a free two month
trial of Skillshare

who are kindly sponsoring this video.

To be honest,

I plug Skillshare even when
they don't sponsor my videos

because I have four classes
on Skillshare right now,

we've got a productivity
class, a study for exams class,

a class on how to use Anki,

which is an amazing flashcard app

and a class on how to edit
videos exactly like this one.

So by signing up to a two
month free trial of Skillshare,

you can watch hours and hours and hours

of the rest of my content,
if that's what you want.

And you should definitely check
out my productivity class.

My mate, Thomas Frank as
another productivity class

which is really good,

'cause ultimately improving our typing

is more about trying to make
ourselves more productive

than just the mechanical
task of improving our typing.

On top of that, Skillshare
has 1000s and 1000s of classes

on all sorts of topics from
creativity to business,

to entrepreneurship, like
literally so much stuff.

And it's all available
for less than $10 a month

for the annual premium subscription.

Even though they sponsor my videos,

even though I'm a Skillshare teacher,

I still pay the $10 a month
every month to Skillshare.

And it's one of the most worthwhile things

that I spend any amount of money on.

And so definitely hit the
link in the video description

to get a two month free
trial of Skillshare,

and thanks Skillshare for
sponsoring this video.

If you like this video and
you wanna be more productive,

then here is a very short playlist

of some of my best
productivity themed videos.

Thank you so much for watching

and I'll see you in the next one,

(tranquil ambient music)
bye bye.