WPM: Words Per Minute. This is how fast you can type words on your keyboard. The average wpm is around: 30-40, and this can be achieved by simple hunting for each key on the keyboard, without any technique neccesarily. If you use a computer somewhat regularly, then you probably have already mustered this speed.
What is a good wpm? Well that varies based on your proffession and what you want to achieve with your typing. Think of it this way, if you are writing an essay, you will be able to finish faster with a faster wpm. A high wpm is also more synced with your brain, a slow wpm may slog your activity, and may not flow as well. With a high wpm you can brain dump your thoughts as you think them, then after writing you can refine what you wrote.
As a programmer, a good wpm is 60+, a lot of time is spent thinking rather than writing, but a good wpm lets you write those algorithms out of your brain just a bit easier.
So what is my WPM?
Currently, I am averaging around 80wpm, which is pretty good, but my goal is 100wpm. So I still have quite a way to go, but I am being more consistent with my training recently. In the past 3 weeks I have got from 70WPM to 80WPM.
Update 2021/07/27 Currently on 99WPM
Update 2023/08/05 Currently on 108WPM on QWERTY
Training to type faster, my story:
One year ago I was typing at 60-65WPM using the traditional QWERTY layout. I had a terrible technique for typing, even though I always loved typing games when I was younger I was never formally trained how to type. PC gamers typically have quite a high WPM because there is a lot of social messaging within video games, however, I never really used to chat in online games.
I always wanted to get a high WPM but I never knew what I needed to do, and it was so hard to completely change the way I type. Learning a new technique, and then go back to my normal bad way of typing when not training, did not give me any results at all. I was not actually learning at all, I was wasting time training. I learned that if I wanted to improve I had to go cold turkey, and start from scratch.
Starting from scratch meant learning a new keyboard layout that is not the traditional QWERTY. I first learned Programmers DVORAK, and had used it for 2 weeks or so, but I found that it was quite difficult to install the write drivers for the layout on different PC's, and it was completely different to QWERTY, training was incredibly slow, position changes did not feel like they made much sense to me, and how I used a PC completely changed, I could not access commonly used shortcuts that I have used all my life easily.
So DVORAK was not for me, I was a bit stumped, but I still wanted to be a bit different and have a less traditional keyboard layout. I chose COLEMAK, the layout just made sense to me when I saw it, all the shortcuts I was used to remained, and I have access to the commonly used characters of the alphabet with my strongest and quickest fingers. So I restarted my training a third time, but this time I was seeing notable progress. It was christmas holidays, and I had a few weeks to train, within a week I was typing at about 15WPM, second week 25WPM, third week 30+wpm. From here I decided to fully commit to this layout, I stopped my typing training from here, and decided to use this layout as how I use my computer full time.
It was such a pain to type my extensive university notes, and using a computer, but also quite fun that I was challenging myself. After a month of using my computer normally, I was now typing at about 45-50WPM, finally a decent speed where I did not feel like it was impacting my studies too much. Then after another month or two, I was at 60WPM. I had successfully achieved the same speed I at with QWERTY. But now I was typing far better, and ergonomicaly, with the proper technique, wpm can only go up, whereas there is quite a CAP on your speed if you do not adopt touch typing.
Touch Typing:
Touch typing is the fastest and best way to achieve better wpm, grant you better comfort when using your keyboard, reduce RSI in your wrists when hunting and pecking for keys, even eye strain as you do not need to shift your keys down to your keyboard, and back up to the screen after each character.
Touch typing forces you to use ALL your fingers, 10 finger typing is far more optimal than typing with 2/3 fingers. You can far more easily achieve a flow state in your typing, even without typing that fast, you are able to have less mistakes. Often programming, mistakes may not be noticed until compilation time, so it is important not to make mistakes.
Training Resources:
Recently I have been putting more effort into reaching my goal of 100wpm, I have been doing daily typing practice on one of my favourite sites: Typeracer ,another site that I enjoy is: 10 Fast Fingers
Improving typing speed once it is already high, is a slow but gradual effort. You will notice improvements, but not as instant as when you first start out.
I learned to properly touch type with this site: Typing Cat
It really teaches you very well, I can now confidently say that I make good use of all my 10 fingers when touch typing. Every key in the keyboard is within Muscle Memory, and because I am using Colemak, all the frequent keys are where I want them.
Summary
If you are a person that enjoys improving efficency of everything in your life, improving your wpm is a great way to efficently write more content.