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    My Cold Turkey

    • Started by scribbly
    • 7 Replies:
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 08-Apr-2009
    • Posts: 4

    I'm a couple of days into my cold turkey... it's a bit up and down. I've got COLEMAK both at home and work.

    I was looking briefly at DVORAK, and was surprired how easy it was to become familiar with the layout.

    COLEMAK also was easy enough to pick up. I rarely have to check the layout I've got under the monitor now, but it feels very slow :(.

    I first learned touch typing 8 or 9 years ago and initially got to about 60wpm, but I haven't kept the practice up, and measured myself at only 43wpm the other day.

    Changed directly over to COLEMAN and I measured 6wpm.

    I've been practicing over at http://keybr.com/, starting just on the home row. After starting the lessons I managed 9wpm the next day and 18-20wpm the next couple of days. Not sure doing it row by row is a good thing or not?

    Just tested over at http://www.powertyping.com/typing_test/ … test.shtml on normal text and managed around the 18 mark (with a few mistakes).

    I like many others here am finding s & r very difficult. I'm only using COLEMAK, except when I have to remote into another machine at work.

    I really like the idea of DVORAK and COLEMAK, but it's pretty hard for the first bit.

    Thanks for all your efforts and support.

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    • From: Houston, Texas
    • Registered: 03-Jan-2007
    • Posts: 358

    "People always overestimate how much they can change with a lot of effort in a very short period of time and severely underestimate how much they can change over a long period of time with a small amount of consistent daily effort."

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    • Registered: 08-Apr-2009
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    What a great quote! Where's it from? Google wouldn't tell me...

    I agree wholeheartedly... today I improved 3wpm at powertyping! :-)

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    • From: Houston, Texas
    • Registered: 03-Jan-2007
    • Posts: 358

    it's paraphrased from memory... and I don't think it was original with the person I heard it from.

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    • Registered: 27-Apr-2008
    • Posts: 166

    Try not to go down the road of obsessing about your speed. If it takes a year to get to 60wpm then so be it. I was stuck at ~55wpm for bloody months. Looking back, I probably caused the plateau by stressing over it.

    Good luck.

    Last edited by simonh (10-Apr-2009 21:57:52)

    "It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in." - Earl of Chesterfield

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    • Registered: 08-Apr-2009
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    Thanks all.

    After my first week I was just starting to feel like the letters were starting to flow out rather than having to squeeze them out one by one. I was very heartened by that.

    Then came the Easter weekend and no practice, so I've slipped back a little.

    But this week has seen further increases, and now I'm about 50% of my QWERTY speed.

    But as simonh said: I'm more thinking the feel is more important... and I'm happy that it's starting to flow out. :)

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    • From: Houston, Texas
    • Registered: 03-Jan-2007
    • Posts: 358

    plateaus are pretty common in any physical training.  After the first year, I've been on one for a while with Colemak because I simply type fast enough for my needs.  At some point I will to work on breaking through the 60 wpm barrier but that means I have to actually practice. :-P     of course it may be because I didn't touch type before and got by being much slower than I am now.

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    • Registered: 08-Apr-2009
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    Yes that was my experience with QWERTY, although I went backwards a bit -- lazy habits I guess.

    I'm pretty keen to keep improving: but we'll see ;)

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