Whenever we are learning a skill or a move – at first we rely heavily on controlling and coordinating ourselves focusing our attention on the things we see and the feedback from our senses.
As we practice more – we are getting familiar with the sequence and we gain some control over our sensations and start coordinating our movements better. Ultimately we become faster at what we do and this activity we are learning becomes automatic.
Overtime we also learn supplementing our cognitive efforts with reflexes. In other words we delegate mastered pirmary skills to our muscle memory also known as procedural memory.
There are two basic forces which define our typing speed.
Mastering typing can be demonstrated on a scale from slow to fast typing.
Cognitive Typing is very slow, between 0 and 7 words per minute.
On the other side we have Typing Flow – the “Autopilot” Typing, composed of reflexes, coupled with unobscured focus of a typist.
Everywhere imbetween – is an active process of mastering typing.
In conclusion – a way to spend up typing is to master the fine motor reflexes.
And on the other hand: using your brain for controlling (micromanaging) your finger movements – is the main obstacle on the way to fast typing.
Back to the FLOW:
And remember, it is not the rush which gets you to the point, but the sequence of timely steps, which is otherwise known as the FLOW.