I did do a typing test today. I just decided not to post it for a few reasons. For one, I realized that typing speed was starting to carry too much weight for me. Or maybe it was always carrying too much weight, and it just became more apparent this week. I know this because I took the typing test more than once when it didn’t show that my speed was better than the last time I posted. It’s not like that’s against the rules or anything, but it tells me that I care a little too much about some fairly arbitrary results.

I recently wrote about how slow can be a good thing, about how learning the fundamentals can pay dividends in the future, about how I am often not good at taking it slow. I even mentioned typing in that post, but I didn’t really change my attitude much. I still keep trying to type my Qwerty speed when using the Dvorak layout. And I think one of the main reasons is that I know I have to report a typing test here. And I hate the idea that I won’t show improvement. That feels like a failure to me.

Of course, I should recognize that I haven’t put as much time in the Dvorak layout recently. I should also recognize that at different moments in the last weeks, I have felt quite comfortable typing in the new system. But the typing test mostly reflects my most current practice, and that hasn’t been all that great.

So, I’m going to focus less on the typing test. I realize this is a little weird because it is the best measure of the whole experiment. But I feel like it has become too big of a yardstick for me, so I’m taking it away for now. In addition to not posting one, I’m going to try my best to not even take one. Also, I’ll probably go three or four weeks before another report since I won’t have as much to say about it.

The experiment lives on, though. I will try to use Dvorak more in my everyday typing, and do a little more typing practice with it.

And in case you really want to know, the test clocked me at 22 wpm. Although, earlier in the week, I got one at 34 wpm. Maybe that variance is another reason to de-emphasize it.