Colemak Update

Can’t say I’m one to always choose the simple path!

I’m a little over two months into using Colemak as my daily driver at home. I have been unsuccessful so far in getting the folks at work to let me use Dreymar’s EPKL package (can’t say I blame them, considering how locked down my work network is). A few thoughts!

Converting to Colemak has been a great brain teaser. It has been a ton of fun to try and rewire my brain to use the keyboard properly, especially when I have to switch back and forth several times a day. My Colemak typing is virtually pain-free, which is more than I can say about my bastardized QWERTY experience. My home row in QWERTY looks more like AERG JIO; instead of ASDF JKL;. I’ve really noticed the tendency in my old ways to focus on primarily using all but my pinky on my left hand and only my index and middle fingers on my right. Colemak has forced me to be a little more equal opportunity in the usage of digits.

When it comes to typing the words, keybr and Monkeytype have definitely been huge helps. From my measly 18wpm beginnings, I’m now averaging in the high 60s which is what makes this more tenable. Using keybr was great for focusing on one letter at a time and working out all those words before unlocking another. Monkeytype was just fun to be typing out quotes. And then there was the reddit influence…

After having joined r/typing and r/speedtyping, my competitive streak kicked in and I looked a little more at what kinds of tests these folks were doing to achieve such crazy fast speeds. With a little luck, I did manage to break triple digits on Colemak on the 10 words test not that long ago. Yay me! Biggest trick I’ve needed to learn so far is to trust my fingers to do the right thing while looking ahead at the words. When it’s happening, the difference in speed is very palpable – upward of a 15wpm increase over me speaking the word in my head and reasoning out how to bang it out on the keyboard.

The “training” I’ve been doing has mostly just been doing 10ish minutes a day on one or both of keybr/mt, and going about as much regular business as possible. It may mean that my texts and emails aren’t necessarily as voluminous as before, but that’s probably a good thing too.

In terms of hardware, the Lily58 keyboard is coming in clutch. I love the ortholinear layout, and it’s so comfy to type on. I’m already considering what might be my next keyboard to use. Regrettably, the IT folks at work DEFINITELY won’t let me plug it in, not without a phone call and a visit from the Military Police.

All in all, zero regrets for having gone down this particular rabbit hole. Hooray for learning!