Skill Spotlight: Typing

Typing is one of the most valuable skills that you can have as a freelancer.Whether you're a writer, a transcriber, a social media manager, or even a programmer, you need to be able to type fast if you want to be productive. As you know, the more productive you are, the more you will earn.

You should aim for a typing speed of at least 60 words per minute. I took a typing test this morning. This is how I fared:

On a good day, my typing speed can go up as high as 72 wpm. It's hard to believe that my typing speed was once 35 wpm. When I was in college, I took a typing class. My final grade was 2.75. (My teacher was too kind to give me a grade of 3.0.) It's not surprising because I used the Biblical typing method: Seek and you shall find.

If your typing speed is as low as mine was during my college days, do not despair. I'm a living proof that, with constant practice, anybody can improve his or her typing speed considerably. I learned touch-typing when I was a call center agent. The customers whom I spoke with would often get impatient with me because I couldn't give them the information they needed. I typed too slowly. Not only that, my AHT (average handling time) was high because I often made my customers wait. To a call center agent, a high AHT is a negative. I knew I had to do something.

I'm thankful that I discovered Sense-lang.org. I used the free typing tutor on the website. A lot has changed on the site since the last time I went there, but I think the typing tutor is even better now. By the way, the typing tutor requires you to paste some text in a text box and then you would have to type the text. When I learned touch-typing while I was working in a call center. What I did was I copied and pasted the text from the emails that I needed to read, and I did this in between calls. I read emails from my superiors and customers as I typed them. You can always find time to practice. You just have to be creative.

If the typing tutor at Senselang.org isn't for you, you can look for a typing tutor that better suits you. Here's a list of online typing tutors that you can either use online or download for offline use.