I've used computers pretty much all my life but I never been able to type without looking at the keys.
I know the general location where the keys are, if I don't have a keyboard I can pretend to type on a imaginary keyboard but when I try on a real keyboard I press keys that are near the keys i actually want to press.
I think a big reason I cant is because I have very big hands and the key layout seems cramped.
Any advice?
Learning how to type is a commitment in two ways:
1. A commitment to investing the time over several months
2. A commitment to being willing to do simple exercises every day
It's not hard, but you have to be willing to do simple things consistently. This is for a few reasons:
1. We don't learn AND remember huge amounts of knowledge at once time
2. We have to develop the muscle memory to do the simple things, like holding shift & a letter to capitalize it, or learning what finger goes on what keyboard
Our brain has something called myelin, which is basically how talent operates physically. In a nutshell:
1. When you do something new, your brain creates a new neural pathway, like a bridge
2. When you do something again, it wraps a piece of floss around that neural pathway
3. The more you do it, the more myelin wraps around that bridge, which acts like high-speed fiber Internet
4. You brain creates myelin by simple, repeatable tasks. Shift+A = capital A. Wraps a line. Practice it the next day. Wraps another line. Circuit gets fatter, your speed & memory increases!
If you remember tying your shoe as a kid, or learning how to whistle or snap - same deal. Really hard at first, but second-nature after your neural pathway was created & you practiced so many times that you have a big fat myelin wrap around it. Even if you wear sandals all summer, you can still come back & pick up tying your shoes again pretty quickly, because that myelin already exists. So practice doesn't so much make perfect as makes
better. This is why you have to not only commit to a long-term investment of time, but also commit to a willingness to do very specific, simple exercises every day, because you can only learn & keep a little tiny bit of information at a time & then practice that to get better.
I type really fast because I took a typing class in middle school where we took this exact approach. We practiced the same letter for hours. It took all semester to learn the keyboard. And it's been an incredibly huge asset in my life ever since! Moving on, there are a lot of great courses online. I'd suggest checking out one like this:
Learn touch typing online using TypingClub's free typing courses. It includes 650 typing games, typing tests and videos.
www.typingclub.com
Create an entry in your calendar to practice one lesson a day, and then actually do it every day. Again, this means committing to actually, really doing simple things, and to doing them consistently, because otherwise, chances are you're always going to be in hunt-and-peck mode & never truly master touch-typing. Also, practice on this game every day:
A typing game that's actually fun to play.
zty.pe
Regarding keyboards, they do make keyboards for large hands:
Amazon.com: Chester Creek Vision Board 2 Color: White: Computers & Accessories
www.amazon.com
Anyway, the bottom line is that it is NOT hard to learn AT ALL, but it
does require not just a long-term commitment, but a commitment to a willingness to do simple things in every practice session. Learning how to type without looking is like having a superpower these days - you can write emails faster, write online posts better, search Youtube & Google quicker, translate thoughts into writing at nearly a 1:1 ratio, etc. 100% worth investing a few minute's worth of time every day over the course of several months to learn how to do! Also, if you like the concept of myelin & want to learn more, check out the book "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle, where he talks more about the formula for practicing to get talented at stuff, which is where I learned about myelin from. The audiobook is great:
Amazon.com: The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. (Audible Audio Edition): Daniel Coyle, John Farrell, Random House Audio: Audible Audiobooks
www.amazon.com
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