1d ago

How do you work against muscle memory to change a physical habit?

I type on a keyboard with only my two middle fingers. This was likely more efficient for my tiny hands at five years old than methods urged by the typing CD-ROMs we had at that time. However as I grew more proportional to a standard keyboard, this early typing style has persisted. I have no idea where to even begin changing this now as it’s been deeply ingrained by decades of habit. Anybody have experience with changing a muscle memory based habit like this?

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Mavis Beacon was how I learned to type and it's available for free. Not sure how this version compares to the old one but there were tons of different games to teach you all the different parts of the keyboard (like symbols or the number line).
As for breaking the muscle memory, maybe you can put tape on your middle fingers to try to make it feel difficult to type with just those fingers.

Sounds like you need a touch-typing tutorial.
The best way to break a habit is repetition over time.

Take your time like this: https://www.how-to-type.com/touch-typing-lessons/how-to-type-home-keys/
Then try a typing game like https://www.typelit.io/
It will take time and it will feel so awkward at first.

Our typing class in high school was this teacher spouting nonsense letter combos and us following those dqyvafter day until we had covered home row , upper and lower, then moving onto coping sentences. Reptitiion works. Find your home row dimples on the key board then today is fjf fjf fjf fjf fjf fjf, tomorrow is another
- Look at these kids with their fancy keyboards with dimples on f and j. Hahahahah
  When I started to repair typewriters as a hobby I was mildly surprised to see that they did not have dimples.
  
  Hows your backpain? You must be going way back on equipment. Everything I have had from 85 on has had a dimple or raised dash.
  
  I learned on manual typewriters in middle school (late 70's, early 80's). We learned to look for our home row, then pay attention to copy or dictation.

There are several apps/websites to learn touch typing from the start, you go from using 2 fingers in their proper places up to the whole hand with exercises that go up in difficulty over time, just do sessions of a few minutes each day and thats it.
my personal recommendation would be https://www.typingclub.com/

I wrote a metaphor with Plants and Habits.
I tried 10 finger typing and learned it bit by bit. Its like putting a pot with a plant in your imagination/brain. When you actively participate on trying to 10 fingee typing against how you usually do, you learn. Its the same as watering your plant.
But what happens when you overwater youe plant? The plant will die and so will your habit.
Do bit by bit similar how you would do to a plant.
Also, dont have too many Plants/Habist in your room, because you will become overwhelmed.
After 10 finger typing for 3 Months, I added Vim as a habit or learning task.
- vimtutor was a lot of fun back in the day, ngl
  
  Ah yeah. It was helpful. But I mostly forced myself to use it at a work experience... so learning jobs and tools was fun....
  Wait. I now remember thay I first tried Vim and on the second work experience I forced myself to 10 finger typing.

introduce a hard break and switch to colemak

I am in the middle of a major transition from using regular keyboards to a more esoteric keyboard.
I have been using QWERTY and regular row-staggered keyboards my whole life. Up until now. (38 now, been using computers since I was 2 (two), and touch typing for probably 20 years at least?)
I have been using the ZSA Voyager now for about a week, which is a split keyboard, first of all. It is also column-staggered, and last but not least, I am using a different keyboard layout, namely Colemak-DH.
I have gone from about 110–120 words per minute, to about 20-35 WPM. So I'm essentially about 4x slower now than I was before the switch.
It's... rough.
But I've read that a lot of people will say the same thing during something like this: the first few weeks, you'll second-guess your choice. It'll feel like you made a mistake. But if you persist, you'll give your brain a chance to build new neutral pathways and create new muscle memory, and once that happens, you'll be flying.
Regarding your own situation: one thing that I think helps with touch typing is to really look at a finger map of which fingers go on which keys, and try to type with that in mind. Also a tip I heard is that elevating your hands above the keyboard helps to be a little more accurate.
Best of luck!

Consciously

Cryptmaster

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