Good typing speed is an essential skill required for any area of administration and increasingly is needed by all professionals. Speed and accuracy are two important aspects of this but often we find that people worry about speed to the neglect of accuracy.

How can someone reach this minimum standard? Something we have heard from a very young age, practice! 

There are however some additional tips that can help us get there a bit faster:

Correct placement of fingers

Most people do not place their fingers correctly when typing.  Although it may seem confusing at first, it will benefit one in the long run.  This requires fingers to be placed on the home row keys.  Your left hand should be placed over  A, S, D and F, with your right hand placed on J,K,L and ;.  Left index finger on the letter F.

• Left middle finger on the letter D.
• Left ring finger on the letter S.
• Left pinkie on the letter A.
• Right index finger on the letter J.
• Right middle finger on the letter K.
• Right ring finger on the letter L.
• Right pinkie finger on the colon/semicolon (; and 🙂 key.
• Left and right thumbs should rest on the space bar.

This also makes it easier to avoid looking at the keyboard.  Initially, this may result in more mistakes but it does teach you to place your fingers correctly.

It has been suggested that to avoid the temptation of looking down at the keyboard, to cover it with a cloth or paper.

Good posture

Get yourself into the habit of sitting in a good posture when typing.  This is often a factor that is overlooked when it comes to typing speeds.   This will ensure that you type for longer and will in the long run put less strain on your back muscles and reduce the risk of various wrist or arm related strains.

Good posture keeps energy levels up so the optimal posture is to have your feet relaxed on the floor and your wrists should be level with the keyboard.

Practice & Accuracy

There are many fun ways that you can practice typing.   One of the best ways is online typing.  To use this to your benefit, regarding typing speed and accuracy, is to ensure that you use collect punctuation and do not use short hand or chat slang.

When practising your typing, intentionally slow down how fast you are typing until you are making the minimum number of clerical errors.

Social media is constantly evolving and everyday people chat online.  Use this to your advantage and improve your typing speed and accuracy whilst engaging with friends and colleagues.

If you would like to discuss any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact me, Laurenda on 083 1308609 or visit our mirco-site with more tips for legal secretary and PAs www.amicustest.ie/legal-secretary-jobs

Start right and end right!

How do I improve my typing speeds? written by Laurenda Smyth