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Friday 29 JANUARY 2010

How to increase PC Confidence and Productivity?

Increase PC Confidence and Productivity

Today I was asked a question about being more productive on the computer, “Ric, how can I get more out of my computer, what can I do to improve my confidence on the PC and get things done?”  This led to a rather lengthy chat helping my client make most of his time and ended up covering all manner of things, firstly breaking down exactly what the computer was used for and how the applications could be mastered to improve productivity.  All in all my client was rather happy with the responses and some on the spot training ensued, I left a happy customer. However for the entire day the question never left my mind and after much thought I was beginning to realise why ...


I was more than happy that I’d helped with the productivity, but what about the confidence?  Did learning a few advanced software features really instil a sense of confidence using a PC?  I couldn’t convince myself of that fact, for those not so tech savy, learning a bunch of advanced Word or PowerPoint features might end up decreasing confidence and may be forgotten if not practiced.  So I set out to find something that might be able help all my customers become more productive and confident through minimal training. 

Towards the end of the day the answer came to me, whilst typing up some emails and work orders and I found that the answer had been staring at me and had been all day, as the simplest of things do!  Something that anyone can learn in relatively short amount of time with minimal effort, minimal cost and could be easily practiced from day to day.

** TOUCH TYPING **


No really, learning to touch type will not only make you faster and more productive in front of a PC but will certainly boost your confidence by giving you mastery over the key component of your computer, the Keyboard!  15 minutes every day or two doing small exercises is all you need to get you started.

What is Touch Typing?

Touch typing is simply the ability to type without the need to watch the keyboard to locate the keys, through muscle exercise and practice you’ll be able to locate all keys (including numbers, symbols and special function keys such as shift and space) through the use of touch only.  As the practice and skill grows so will your speed and accuracy. 

How exactly will Touch Typing help?

As your speed and accuracy increases you will start to notice subtle improvements in your computer use, simple things such as logging on, typing emails and writing letters become much easier and faster.  Typing which used to be the limiting factor in getting things done is no longer the issue, thinking of what to write will be and because you’re no longer trained to stare at the keyboard as you type you’ll be watching the screen and picking up on the typos and other errors as you go, another time saver.  This skill will assist in pretty much every aspect of your computer use, there’s not much that can be done without a keyboard.

I'm convinced, how can I learn to Touch Type?

Touch Typing is a skill practiced by many and as such there exist a few ways to learn this valuable skill:


Web Sites: There are thousands of online resources dedicated to helping you learn to type, some offer it for free and some don’t and it’s simply a matter of finding what works for you.  The following I would strongly recommend having used myself a little in the past, a good way to quickly learn and benchmark yourself, take a look at: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/

Software: I’ve been using various pieces of software to help improve my touch typing but there is always one I’ll keep coming back to and that’s “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum” which easily covers all aspects of touch typing with hundreds of lessons and ways to keep you motivated as you progress.  Granted this is not the only one out there, I hear good things about Typing Instructor Platinum and intend to review the software in the near future. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Platinum V20 (Mac/PC) is available at Amazon!

Hardware: Yes believe it or not there are keyboards out there that can help you turn into a professional typist, the answer?  Blank Keys!  Yes you read correctly :) you can buy keyboards that have absolutely no lettering which help force you to memorise key locations. 

Probably the greatest keyboard I’ve ever owned is the DasKeyboard: Ultimate, I’ve now owned it for several years and it’s still going very strong, easily one of the most comfortable keyboards and very robust (its had more than a few knocks), and yes no lettering, symbols and no numbers, completley blank!  Unfortunately such a nice piece of hardware comes with a fairly steep price tag but they now offer Professional editions with lettering which just concentrate on build quality.  For more details check them out here: http://www.daskeyboard.com/ I can personally and highly recommend!

For those after something a little cheaper you can just buy a standard keyboard and either place small stickers over the lettering or sand them off completely to encourage the same learning processes.  Works great in combination with Mavis Beacon’s Typing Tutor Software.

That's it, I hope this has been enough to spark a little interest, touch typing = confidence + increased productivity!
And for when you get really good: http://www.ultimatetypingchampionship.com/ ;)

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