How to Type Faster — A 30-Day Plan to Hit 80 WPM

A commonly cited average for adults is around 40 words per minute (WPM). People who type all day for work often sit well above that, and record-setting typists have been clocked above 200 WPM over short bursts. If you can already touch-type but want to break 60 WPM, here’s a 30-day plan that actually works.

The short version of how to type faster: keep your fingers anchored on the home row, stop looking at the keyboard, slow down until you stop making mistakes, and practice 10 minutes every day instead of an hour once a week. Measure yourself on a timed test at the start and once a week after that, so you know whether it’s working.

Key takeaways

Accuracy comes first: every typo costs you the wrong key plus a backspace.
Touch typing means each finger owns a fixed set of keys and returns to the home row.
Short daily sessions beat long weekly ones for building typing speed.
Past 80 WPM the limit is usually reading ahead, not finger speed.

How words per minute is measured

Typing tests don’t count actual words. By convention, one “word” is five characters, spaces included. So 60 WPM means about 300 correct characters a minute, whether you typed short words or long ones.

Our typing test works the same way: it counts the characters you typed correctly, divides by five, and divides again by the minutes that have passed. The timer starts on your first keystroke, so you can read the opening words before you begin. Accuracy is the share of your typed characters that match the text. If you backspace and fix a mistake, the fixed character counts as correct, but the time you spent fixing it still lowers your WPM.

Different typing sites score slightly differently, so compare your results on the same test each time.

Step 1: Get a baseline

Take a typing test. Use our typing test at 60 seconds. Don’t try hard — type at your natural pace. Record your WPM and accuracy. If you’re below 35 WPM or under 95% accuracy, you have a technique problem; the rest of this guide will help.

The test opens on 30 seconds, so switch the menu to 60 seconds first. Longer tests smooth out a lucky or unlucky start. Take three tests and note the middle result.

Step 2: Fix your home row

Touch typing means your fingers always return to the home row: ASDF for left hand, JKL; for right hand. Your wrists should not move. Your eyes should not look at the keyboard.

Most keyboards have a small raised bump on the F and J keys so you can find the home row by feel. Each finger then owns a column of keys:

Finger	Left hand	Right hand
Index	R, F, V, T, G, B (and 4, 5)	Y, H, N, U, J, M (and 6, 7)
Middle	E, D, C (and 3)	I, K, comma (and 8)
Ring	W, S, X (and 2)	O, L, period (and 9)
Pinky	Q, A, Z (and 1, Tab, Shift)	P, semicolon, slash (and 0, Enter, Shift)
Thumbs	Space bar

Almost everyone develops slight “hunt and peck” tendencies — looking at the keyboard for unusual letters like Q, Z, X. A blunt way to fix this: cover your keyboard with a cloth for a week. You’ll make more mistakes at first, but you’ll stop relying on your eyes.

For capital letters, use the Shift key on the opposite hand from the letter. Capital A is right Shift plus left pinky; capital J is left Shift plus right index. It feels awkward for a few days and then becomes automatic.

Step 3: The common-sequence drill

Type “the” 50 times. Then “and” 50 times. Then “ing” 50 times. These are among the most common three-letter sequences in English. By repeating them, you build muscle memory for the most common finger transitions.

Top typists don’t read individual letters; they read words and let muscle memory handle the keystrokes. This drill builds that muscle memory.

Then find your own weak spots. After a test, look at which letters turned red. If the same pair keeps tripping you (many people struggle with “ion” or “ght”), give that sequence its own 50 repetitions.

Step 4: Slow down to speed up

This is counterintuitive but it works. For 7 days, type at 80% of your max speed but aim for 100% accuracy. Most people find that once accuracy is automatic, speed follows, with fewer mistakes.

Speed comes from accuracy. Mistakes cost you 2 keystrokes (one to make the mistake, one to backspace). At 60 WPM with 95% accuracy, you’re effectively at roughly 54 WPM in real-world output. At 50 WPM with 100% accuracy, you’re at 50 WPM real-world. So fix the accuracy first.

A good rhythm check: aim for an even beat between keystrokes, like a metronome. Bursts of fast letters followed by pauses usually mean you’re guessing at the hard keys.

Step 5: Mix text types

If you only practice on standard prose, you’ll only get fast at standard prose. If you write code, practice on code (lots of symbols, lots of {}). If you write reports, practice on long-form text.

Our typing test has three text modes: common words (general practice), famous quotes (long-form prose with capital letters), and tech terms (programming vocabulary like “function” and “async”). Rotate through all three. The tech mode is words only, with no brackets or symbols, so practice symbols by retyping real code from your own projects.

Step 6: The 30-day commitment

Type for 10 minutes a day for 30 days. Not 60 minutes once a week — 10 minutes daily. Spaced practice generally beats cramming for skills like this, so short daily sessions tend to pay off better than one long one.

Expect: week 1 — slow, painful, lots of mistakes. Week 2 — speed flattens, accuracy improves. Week 3 — you may notice you’re measurably faster than your baseline. Week 4 — that speed stabilizes.

Here’s one way to split the 10 minutes across the month:

Days	Focus	A typical 10-minute session
1–7	Home row and no peeking	5 min sequence drills, 5 min common-words tests at a slow, even pace
8–14	Accuracy	Tests at about 80% of your speed, aiming for 100% accuracy
15–21	Variety	Rotate common words, quotes and tech terms; drill your red letters
22–30	Reading ahead	Longer 2-minute tests; keep your eyes a few words ahead of your fingers

Take one 60-second test at the end of each week and log it next to your baseline. Judge progress week to week, not day to day; single tests bounce around.

Common mistakes that stall your typing speed

Chasing your best score every session. Practicing at full speed rehearses your mistakes. Most of your practice should be slightly slower than your test speed.
Using the wrong finger “because it’s faster.” A shortcut finger works on easy words and falls apart on long ones. Stick to the finger map.
Glancing down for numbers and symbols. Every glance breaks your reading flow. Practice the number row on its own until you can find it by feel.

What kind of keyboard?

Doesn’t matter as much as people say. Mechanical keyboards are nice but membrane keyboards are fine. The main physical thing that matters: key travel (how far the key moves before registering). Some people type faster on low-travel keys; others find them tiring over long sessions. Try a few and pick what feels comfortable.

Apple’s butterfly keyboards (introduced in 2015) were very shallow and widely criticized. Apple moved back to scissor-switch keyboards with more travel from late 2019.

Beyond 80 WPM

Past 80 WPM you stop being limited by mechanical speed and start being limited by reading speed. To get to 100+ WPM you have to develop the ability to read a few words ahead while typing the current word, sometimes called “buffering.”

Practice this with longer texts. Read the next few words ahead while typing the current ones. It takes deliberate practice, but it does come.

Typing games help here too, because they force you to react to words you haven’t seen yet. Our roundup of the best browser typing games has options when plain tests get dull, and if you’ve outgrown lesson-style courses, see games like TypingClub.

Frequently asked questions

How can I type faster quickly?

Stop looking at the keyboard and slow down until your accuracy is close to 100%. Most quick gains come from cutting typos and backspaces, not from moving your fingers faster. Then practice 10 minutes a day.

How long does it take to improve typing speed?

It varies a lot from person to person. With daily practice, many people notice a difference within a few weeks, which is why this plan runs for 30 days. Relearning bad habits, like using two fingers, takes longer at first because you’ll be slower before you get faster.

Is it OK to look at the keyboard while typing?

While you’re learning a new key, yes. For practice, no: every glance down breaks your reading and slows you more than the occasional typo. Use the bumps on F and J to find your place by feel.

Does the typing test count mistakes I fix?

On our test, a mistake you backspace and correct counts as correct, so it doesn’t hurt your accuracy. It still costs you time, which lowers your WPM. Mistakes you leave in count against both.

How long should a typing test be?

Use 60 seconds or 2 minutes to measure progress. Our test also offers 15 and 30 seconds, which are good for quick warm-ups but more affected by a fast or slow start.

Take the test

Track your progress on our typing test. Your best WPM is saved in your browser, so you can see whether the plan is working. Press Tab to start a fresh test without reaching for the mouse. When you need a break from drills, the Chrome Dino game needs exactly one key.

How to Type Faster — 30-Day Plan to 80 WPM