Keyboard Typing Practice: Was It Worth It as a Programmer?
I completed a typing course in English and now I practice keyboard typing every day. Here's where it actually paid off as a programmer — and where it didn't.
Where Learning Touch Typing Actually Helped
I use touch typing the most when writing prompts — explaining to an AI coding agent what needs to be done. Sometimes it's a couple of sentences when fixing a bug. Sometimes it's a big block of text when describing a task for a new project. It's convenient that you can mention a file name, paste a path, type out an exact variable name — try doing that with voice input.
For writing articles, chatting, documentation — also useful. Your eyes don't jump between the screen and the keyboard, you just look at the text and type.
That said, I'll be honest: I didn't measure any "before and after" and I can't say I became noticeably more productive. My main goal was simply to learn touch typing. It always looked cool to me, like a mini dream. And I checked that box.
Touch Typing and Keyboard Practice in the IDE
I mostly work in IntelliJ IDEA, but I think this applies to other IDEs too. Personally, learning to touch type didn't give me a big boost.
Touch typing teaches you to type letters, numbers and basic punctuation. Capitals are Shift plus a letter, punctuation is also Shift plus a key. You build muscle memory for these because you actually practice them. But IDE keyboard shortcuts are a completely different story. Alt+F7 to find usages, Ctrl+Shift+F to search the project, triple key combinations — there's simply no muscle memory for these because you don't practice them when learning to type. Every time your brain has to figure out how to reach the right keys, and your fingers drift away from the home row.
On top of that — most of my time isn't spent typing. I read code, jump between files, search for the right spot. The main keys are the arrow keys — like for gamers. When you're starting a new project or describing a task — yes, you type a lot. But on a large codebase or legacy project — you're navigating code more than typing it.
Maybe it's worth trying to remap shortcuts so your fingers return to the home position more easily instead of getting stuck somewhere in between. Or trying Vim — where navigation supposedly lives on the home row. But I haven't gotten there yet and I don't know if it actually works well. That's something to try and see.
How to Learn Touch Typing Without Giving Up
When you're just starting out, there's a temptation to type the old way — looking at the keyboard. Because the new method is still slow, and the old way is familiar and fast. Don't make a catastrophe out of this. If you want to learn faster — tell yourself "no" and only type with the new method. I personally didn't do that: sometimes I used touch typing, sometimes I switched back to the old way. I still learned, just maybe a bit slower.
Another thing — typos. When typing a prompt for an AI agent, typos don't matter much: the agent understands context and figures out what you meant. But if you're using touch typing where mistakes are unacceptable — you need to be more careful.
Is a Touch Typing Course Worth It for Programmers?
If you write a lot of prompts, articles, documentation, chat a lot and prefer typing over dictating — learning touch typing will be useful.
Personally, it didn't help me much in the IDE — not without remapping shortcuts or switching to something else. Maybe it's worth trying Vim or reconfiguring key combinations, but I haven't done that yet and I don't know if it'll work.
My honest take: I learned touch typing not for typing speed, but because I always wanted to. And I don't regret it.
Right now you get 10 free sessions per day, enough to see if it works for you.