Mike Stott

I was reading a thread the other day about typing speed. It got me thinking – does typing super FAST really matter? I’ve never done a test, so I thought I’d fire up the familiar 10 fast fingers and give it a go. Here’s my results – what are yours?

The first attempt I got 55 WPM. I could have put a clickbait title like How I Increased my typing speed by 38% in 2 minutes but in reality – what actually happened was I got a little bit more used to the 10 fast fingers UI and the particular keyboard I’m on.

Sure, with more practice (I hit enter a few times instead of space, or expected it to progress once I’d typed the word correctly) I’m sure I could get a higher result, in fact.. here goes….

I got more correct words, but (sausage fingers) meant I missed the odd letter and put gather instead of father.. oh well but my speed increased another 5%. Woot.

Does it really matter?

When writing content, we are also limited by how fast the thoughts can come out of our head. I don’t know about you, but if I’m writing a piece like this then there’s different things which can affect the speed of the actual content creation:-

• How sufficient am I with the editor I’m using (Gutenberg is pretty cool for writing content, I don’t have to find the WYSIWYG buttons for bullets, etc).
• What is the structure of my content? Do I want some lists here? Maybe a quote next.
• Distractions – am I distracted as I try and write – on 10 fast fingers there’s ads flying around and other distractions getting in the way.

What’s really slowing you down isn’t the speed you can churn words out onto a page, it’s WHAT you’re saying and how you’re structuring the content. If I could zoom out 155+ WPM onto a page there’d likely be a lot of editing afterwards and content structuring. Adding rich content (lists, quotes, images) will slow down the creation of the piece but make it just that bit easier to read and absorb.

Driving at 80mph uses more fuel that running at 60mph. On relatively short journeys, the difference in time saved isn’t worth worrying about.

Mike Stott

If I’m aiming for a 1,000 word piece of content, at a writing speed of 155 WPM (probably top 1%) I’ll churn the piece out in just under 7 minutes, if I’m writing at 80 WPM, I’ll churn it out in just over 12. Those 5 minutes if you’re writing a post a day = 30 hours in a year “saved”. What could you do in those 30 hours (edit your content?) 😊.

Sure, it’s a cool trick to have and there’s tips to speed up how fast you can write (like removing full incorrect words with one keystroke instead of hitting backspace 8 times) but I don’t think it’s the end of the world if you’re NOT typing at blazing fast speeds.

But, I’m even slower than most?

Does that mean you shouldn’t write at all? No. What I’m saying is it doesn’t matter how fast you can type – what matters is what you type and if you actually hit that publish button and get your word out there.

Over time, the more you write the faster you’ll naturally get and the quality of your articles will improve. Whether that’s the layout, the messaging or just how much content you’re producing for your site, your business or your studies.

30 hours freed up a year sounds good though…

It sure does, and there are ways you can improve, the main one is practice. Write every day whether it’s public or private (through a journaling app – I recommend Day One for journaling).

What are your thoughts? Does typing fast really matter? How have you improved your writing speed and quality? Let me know in the comments below.