How to learn to type fast: a 30 day plan for kids and adults

01Why touch typing is worth a month of your time

Touch typing means typing without looking at the keyboard, with each finger responsible for its own keys. People who hunt and peck with two fingers usually top out at 20 to 30 words per minute, and they spend most of their attention on where the keys are. People who touch type can reach 40, 60 or more, and they can think about what they are writing instead of how to write it.

That matters at school, where typed homework and online tests are normal, and at work, where an hour a day of typing adds up to a lot of saved time. For children it also helps with spelling and with getting ideas onto the page quickly, which is why many schools start keyboarding around age seven or eight.

The plan below uses the free Typing Sprint game: its 25 lessons to teach the keys, its 1 minute test to measure progress, and its falling words arcade to keep practice fun. You can follow the same plan with any tool, but the order matters more than the tool.

02Day 0: set up and measure your starting point

Before you start, spend five minutes on setup. Sit upright with your feet flat on the floor. Keep your forearms level with the keyboard, elbows near a right angle, and wrists floating rather than resting on the desk edge. Put the screen at eye level so you are not bending your neck. For children, a cushion under the feet or a chair that can be raised helps a lot.

Then take one 1 minute typing test on Easy words with Show keyboard turned off. Write down the WPM and the accuracy. This is your baseline, not a grade. If you are a hunt and peck typist, expect something between 10 and 25 WPM. If you already type well, the plan will still help you lock in clean habits and fix weak keys.

Finally, decide on a time. The best time to practise is the same time every day, such as right after school or before dinner. Fifteen minutes is enough. A habit you will keep beats a plan that is too ambitious.

03Week 1 (days 1 to 7): learn the home row

The home row is where your fingers rest: A S D F for the left hand and J K L ; for the right, with both thumbs on the space bar. The little bumps on F and J let your index fingers find home without looking. Everything else you type is a short move away from there, so this week is about making home feel automatic.

Work through the first six lessons, which add two keys at a time (F and J, D and K, S and L, A and semicolon, G and H) and finish with a home row review. Do one or two lessons a day, then repeat the one you finished. A wrong key does not advance in the lessons, so the only way forward is to press the right finger, which is exactly the habit you want.

Use the finger guide. It lights up the finger for each key, and it is worth following exactly, even when it feels slow. Slow and correct is the whole job this week. Aim for 90% accuracy to pass and then try to reach 95% on a repeat. Do not worry about speed at all.

• Days 1 and 2: lessons 1 to 3 (F J, D K, S L)
• Days 3 and 4: lessons 4 and 5 (A ;, G H) and repeat the earlier ones
• Day 5: the home row review lesson
• Day 6: repeat any lesson under three stars
• Day 7: one 1 minute test (Easy words) to see how the home row feels. Rest from lessons if you like.

04Week 2 (days 8 to 14): the top and bottom rows

Now the other letter rows. The top row (Q W E R T Y U I O P) is reached by moving each finger straight up from home, and it holds the most common letters in English, so it pays off fastest. The bottom row (Z X C V B N M and the comma, full stop and slash) takes a small reach down and in.

The lessons keep adding two keys at a time and mix them with real words, so by the end of the week you are typing words like quick, never and world with all the right fingers. Take the top row on days 8 to 10 and the bottom row on days 11 to 13, finishing each with its review lesson.

If one key keeps tripping you up, do not rush past it. Repeat the lesson that introduced it until it is easy. The keys that stay slow at the end of week 2 will be the ones that limit your speed forever, so spend time on them now.

• Days 8 to 10: top row lessons (E I, R U, T Y, W O, Q P) and the top row review
• Days 11 to 13: bottom row lessons (V M, C comma, X full stop, Z slash, B N) and the bottom row review
• Day 14: a 1 minute test on Easy words. Compare with day 7 and day 0.

05Week 3 (days 15 to 21): numbers, capitals and punctuation

Week 3 is where typing starts to feel like real writing. The number row is a long reach, so it takes the most practice: two lessons cover 1 to 5 and 6 to 0, followed by a numbers review. Do not worry if numbers stay slower than letters for a while. Many touch typists are slowest on numbers.

Then come the Shift lessons: capital letters, question and exclamation marks, quotes, hyphens and colons, and finally whole sentences. The rule that makes it easy is that you press Shift with the little finger of the opposite hand to the key you want. The lesson shows which Shift key to hold each time.

End the week by switching on Capitals, punctuation and numbers in the typing test and taking a 1 minute test on Easy words. Your WPM will drop a lot compared with plain words, and that is normal. It is the real baseline for how you will type emails and essays.

• Days 15 and 16: number lessons and review
• Days 17 and 18: capital letters and question and exclamation marks
• Day 19: quotes, hyphens and colons
• Day 20: the sentences lesson
• Day 21: a 1 minute test with punctuation and numbers turned on

06Week 4 (days 22 to 30): build speed without losing accuracy

You now know every key. Week 4 is about fluency: making the movements smooth enough that the speed comes by itself. The rule is simple: keep your accuracy above 95% and let the speed rise as it will. If you chase speed and your accuracy drops below 92% or so, slow down. Errors cost far more time than they save.

Alternate between two kinds of practice. On even days take a 1 minute test or two on Medium words and try to beat your best. On odd days play the falling words arcade, which pushes you to respond to a whole word at once rather than letter by letter, and takes the stress out of the clock because the fun of the game hides it.

On day 28 take a 3 minute test on Medium words. A longer test shows whether your accuracy holds up as you tire. Look at the graph on the result screen: a smooth line is a good sign, and a dip in the last minute tells you to build stamina with a few more short sessions.

On day 30 repeat the exact 1 minute test you took on day 0 and compare. For most people who practise daily, the touch typing speed on day 30 is clearly higher than the hunt and peck baseline, and, more importantly, the accuracy is better and you no longer need to look down.

• Days 22 to 27: alternate a 1 minute test on Medium words and an arcade round
• Day 28: a 3 minute test on Medium words and a look at the graph
• Day 29: practise your slowest keys with the lesson that introduced them
• Day 30: the same test as day 0. Celebrate the difference.

07A 15 minute daily routine you can copy

Every session can follow the same shape, which makes it easy to start and easy for a parent or teacher to supervise.

• 2 minutes: posture check, fingers on the home row.
• 8 minutes: the day's lesson (or a repeat of the last one).
• 3 minutes: a 1 minute test or an arcade round for fun.
• 2 minutes: look at the result, note the accuracy, stop on a success.

08Adapting the plan for kids

Children can start touch typing at around seven, once they can read simple words and their hands can span the keys. Keep sessions to ten minutes at that age, and let them split the plan over six weeks instead of four. Use the falling words game as the reward after the lesson, not as a replacement for it.

Praise accuracy, not speed. A child told to hurry will build bad habits. A child who is praised for a clean lesson will want to repeat it. Stars for each lesson, a sticker chart on the fridge or a turn on a favourite game afterwards work well. If your child gets frustrated, shorten the session rather than push, and finish with something they can do well.

09Adapting the plan for adults who are returning to typing

Adults who have typed for years in their own way often find touch typing frustrating at first, because it feels slower than their old habit. That dip is normal and lasts a week or two. If you cannot bear it all day, use touch typing only during your practice sessions at first and keep typing your old way at work, then switch over once the new way is comfortable.

If your job needs typing speed, aim for an accuracy of 97% or more and a 3 minute test with punctuation turned on. That is a much better predictor of useful speed than a 30 second burst of easy words.

10Common mistakes that slow people down

• Looking at the keys. Cover your hands with a cloth or a piece of card if you cannot stop yourself.
• Rushing. Fast and wrong is slower than steady and right.
• Practising too long at once. Fifteen focused minutes beat an hour of tired fingers.
• Skipping the lessons you find boring. They are usually the ones with your weak keys.
• Only taking tests. Tests measure, but lessons build the skill. Do both.
• Poor posture, which causes tension and tired wrists. Check it at the start of every session.

11Where to go after 30 days

After the 30 days, keep a lighter routine: a 1 minute test a few times a week and a harder arcade level to stay sharp. Try Hard words and the punctuation setting to stretch yourself, and use Typing Sprint's My progress screen to watch your average WPM climb over weeks, not days.

Typing is one of several skills that grow with short daily practice. If you are helping a child with maths too, our guide to learning the times tables uses the same idea: small, regular sessions that repeat what is hard. And for a strategy game that trains patience and planning, see chess rules for beginners. Ready to start? Play Typing Sprint now and take your day 0 test.