Is it okay to touch type with several different finger placements?

Question

I typed using a QWERTY keyboard for years since my childhood, but I never learned how to type properly and I just type the way I type instead. I use all of my fingers (I had the feelings of that), but I can't describe which fingers press which keyboard button.

Until recently, I just knew that I have been doing it wrong. Then, I tried to learn touch typing instead of the messed up typing skill that I got, and it was better. I went from 50-70 WPM to 60-80 WPM in just a day learning it.

But even though I learned to touch type properly, I still couldn't move away from some of my 'finger misplacements' to optimize my typing skills. The mistakes that I still made were:

• Pressing ZXCV using left thumb
• Pressing space using right point finger
• Pressing U with right middle finger (and maybe other fingers beside U)
• Not using right shift when capitalizing left keystrokes
• And (maybe) many more that I didn't recognize

I tried to change my habits, but it's already stuck in my brain. I keep forgetting which finger should press which keystroke and so on. I wanted to raise my WPM by touch typing, but I'm just comfortable with the way I type, even though I don't know if that is a good thing or not.

Will keeping those habits make me type slower? If it does, then what should I do?

By the way, I know that 60-80 WPM is good enough for me for literature, but I'd prefer to upgrade it just for fun and to improve my typing accuracy.

Answer 1

Not sure if it will make you slower, but I know that I don't follow what they tried to teach me in middle school and I'm fine. I type my own way really, I don't really line up my fingers on the f and h keys and then just move them a bit, I rest my wrists on the edge of the laptop and go from there.

One thing that might slow you down though, is changing computers. Different ones might have different sized keyboards which can throw off your muscle memory, and if its just a keyboard then you have to kinda hold your hands off the table a tad. Still, you should be fine. I wouldn't worry too much about it since you'll probably be thinking about what to write next more than actually writing it.