My Dvorak Experience

Well, as I said, I decided to switch from Qwerty to Dvorak, giving myself a month to get to 40 wpm (words per minute).

I found a website, http://www.powertyping.com, that offered free lessons and speed tests in both Qwerty and Dvorak. Just before starting lessons, I took a speed test using the Qwerty keyboard. I typed 54 words per minute and made 9.2 mistakes per minute. I was surprised my speed was that high. I’ve hovered between 45-50 words per minute for the past ten years. The low accuracy didn’t surprise me, though. That actually was one of the reasons Dvorak appealed to me. If the claims were true, perhaps I could attain greater accuracy levels as well as increasing my speed. I printed out the Dvorak keyboard layout, put it above my computer and started the lessons.

That first day, I spent 3 hours at lessons and another 2 hours playing typing games. That is much more than what is recommended, but I do tend to be a bit intense when I start new projects. After that first day, though, I usually only spent the recommended 1-2 hours training or typing. When I had progressed through most of the lessons, I decided to test my speed and accuracy. I used the same test I’d used for my Qwerty pre-test and discovered I could type 13 words per minute with 2 mistakes per minute.

That first week was spent doing the lessons over and over, striving for mastery at each level. I also worked through several of the tests, particularly the lists of most frequently used words. When I tired of the lessons, I played the typing games at http://www.powertyping.com. Each morning and evening I would log my speed and accuracy. My accuracy fluctuated from 2-10 words per minute, but my speed steadily increased. I averaged a 2 word per minute increase each day, reaching 30 words per minute in a week.

I still struggled to have a clear mental image of the Dvorak keyboard. Even when I was staring at my print-out of the keyboard, my fingers kept insisting on typing Qwerty keys. Discouragement hit. Should I just quit? I tried to take a Qwerty speed test. I faltered and stumbled through the text and finally gave up. I could not bring up the mental image of the Qwerty keyboard that had been in my mind for decades. I didn’t quite have a Dvorak image there, but the Qwerty one was fading fast. If my mental image of the Dvorak keyboard was that strong after just a week, surely I could take a few more weeks to get my fingers used to the keyboard.

With renewed energy, I typed every day. Sometimes it was from handwritten notes; sometimes directly from my mind. I got caught up on a lot of email that week. My mental image of the keyboard grew stronger. I became more accurate as long as I concentrated hard on that mental image (or stared at the print-out) and typed slowly. If I typed too fast or started "thinking into the keyboard", I reverted back to Qwerty or, more often, a mixture of the two keyboards. That created some highly amusing mistakes.

It is now the third week. Every day I type for at least an hour. I answer emails. I write articles. I play typing games. I’m still not completely comfortable with the keyboard, but that will happen. I have accomplished my goal of 40 words per minute. And it only took about 3 weeks and 30 hours of typing to do it!

You should try it!