How to reach 60 WPM in 2 Weeks Typing on Colemak

How to reach 60 WPM in 2 Weeks Typing on Colemak, Colemak DH, or another alternative keyboard layout.
As a lifelong QWERTY user who was averaging around 100 wpm, this has been my experience switching to another layout. In this video I go over a few of the options and then give some tips on how you can shorten the learning curve if you want to make the switch yourself.
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Thank you for your support :)

[@ol1mar]

Its criminal this only has 200 views for such high quality content. Really hope the youtube algorithm picks you up

[@stuarthahn]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@eamoxx]

completely agree!

[@mihaiandrei97]

28k now

[@999samus7]

This is the content I need to have on the background to focus on my work, great video man.

[@stuarthahn]

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@yearlyoatmeal]

I did a similar switch one year ago: to colemak and ergonomic keyboard. I also found it difficult to choose between colemak and workman. Great vid!

[@obsolete9734]

which one did you end up choosing?

[@DylanSterling]

I switched to Dvorak many years ago. Took about a month to get used to it, but I can’t imagine switching.

[@perz1val]

Man, your great! Keep up the anti-QWERTY speach, I want it gone (not as much as staggered). Jokes aside, your previous video got actually recommend for me earlier today, I guess you'll have more people coming in soon :) And do a community pole with a keyboard question like "Do you know that qwerty is a bad layout?". Production quality is amazing, you should do great

[@stuarthahn]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the videos. I appreciate you watching :)

[@WhenTheUhh]

Great vid m8! I did the same shit around 5 months ago lol. The exact same reasons. I bought an OLKB Preonic ortho board and switched to Colemak DHm. It took a while but currently I'm around 85 average with 124 highest. I'm glad you managed to avoid Workman, I had to figure that out the hard way lmao. It's just... not good. Other than the lower score it's also stuff like frequent same finger utilization, random increase in left ring finger usage, switched positions of 'I' and 'O' keys compared to Colemak, literal inability to cross 100WPM (it's just painfully slow). Colemak DHm mustard rice! Btw, since you're already using keybr, I figured the best way to train, at least for me, was to provide my own custom text (which you can do there). The mumbo-jumbo lessons get old pretty quick. And since then I've rewritten 6 books already. It's like reading a book and training at the same time, it just works.

[@stuarthahn]

Oh, smart. I've been using keybr to tighten up my muscle memory and monkeytype to practice real words and punctuation. I think I'll try typing out some books next, that's a great idea!

[@subarutendou]

For me I tried colemak-dh and dvorak, I perfer dvorak, because I will use both hand. In colemak I use my left hand most the time and is so tired.

[@RahulSharma-pu1ko]

I moved from Qwerty to Dvorak for a week, but, I soon gave up because I couldn't roll my fingers to type some fragments and placement of "I" one letter away from "E" made it difficult to get that bigram right for me. Tried Colemak and it felt a lot more comforatable. You can roll your fingers for many word fragments. Started at 8wpm and I have reached 30 wpm within a week. Thanks for the tips Stuart

[@GoForTrevor]

Really great video. Just one point, I found myself looking for a little more in the way of details (how the layouts actually differ, how their placement is actually superior, etc), that's just one thing to keep in mind. Overall, great video.

[@ShaXCwalk]

i agree with the other dude. very clean video. love the editing. minimal but the style is still popping

[@binarysun_]

I love Dvorak. Learned it 15 years ago and it fixed my wrist problems. It was such a revelation back then. Now I am learning RSTHD which is even crazier when it comes to ergonomics

[@Patrickblox]

I'm going down the exact same road as you with Colemak DHM on the Moonlander. I never touch typed properly on a normal keyboard so I'm also learning that. It's a real challenge and after 8 hours of keybr over 5 days I'm still only at around 31 wpm average and that's with only 14 letters unlocked. I've also used it outside of practicing for chats and such. I feel stuck. I'm worried that I'm doing something wrong because it seems like you were able to learn it much faster. Do I just need to be more patient? Great video by the way, watched it twice now lol

[@stuarthahn]

Hey Patrick, good luck! I was a pretty fast touch typist before trying to make the switch so I wouldn't compare your progress to mine. Just focus on hitting the right keys (without looking) and aim for consistency. It takes time and practice but it seems like you're putting in the work. Just keep going and you'll break through those plateaus soon enough.

[@Patrickblox]

@@stuarthahn Thanks for the reply. I should note that I used to type fast on qwerty, around 110 to 120 wpm max, but I definitely did not type properly. On my left hand, I used my ring finger, middle finger and index finger, and on my right hand I exclusively used my index finger. I don't know why and I don't know how, but it worked for me until I got a strain injury last year. It's pretty much gone now but I'm putting in work to prevent it from happening again. I hope to see more videos about your keyboard journey, including your setup with layers and punctuations/symbols, tenting, mouse control, etc. You're a very good presenter so definitely keep it up!

[@sensoryoverload673]

@@Patrickblox Sorry for replying to an old comment, but damn 100+ wpm with 4 fingers? I'm impressed. As someone who's switching now, are you still using Colemak DHM? And if so how's that going?

[@Patrickblox]

@@sensoryoverload673 no worries, I'm still using Colemak DHm, at 143 wpm last I did a typing test. Definitely never going back. Using the Keyboardio Model 100 today which just arrived a couple of days ago.

[@sensoryoverload673]

@@Patrickblox Awesome! Just the motivation I needed! I think I saw that keyboard somewhere too, looks very interesting. Actually I'm wondering how the typing comfort has been for you (on a regular keyboard), did colemak prevent any more hand pain?

[@Kasiarzynka]

Only yesterday did I actually install Colemak (standard not DH because idk it was easier to find lol) on a vm on my PC and let me tell you the first thing I noticed. It is CRIMINAL that we don't have a backspace in place of capslock on regular qwerty... It's just so much more efficient and capslock is probably one of the least used special keys like imho the only reason you'd use it is when you need to type capital letters with one hand (fun fact, on the German QWERTZ capslock also locks special characters, so just pressing 1 gives you ! etc.). Also I really want an ortholinear keyboard and it's also criminal how hard they are to get (my bank card is not a MasterCard for some reason and I literally cannot pay for all the Moonlanders, Erdogoxs etc., so I'll have to ask around family members, smh). One reason for me to try and switch is really bad typing habits - I can type in English at consistent 60 and sometimes even 70 wpm which most of the time is good enough for me. But since I would play video games since early age (I'm 25 and my father used to work at a company selling computers etc so he has access to cheaper hardware etc) so my home position is more like "shift AWSD JOP" I think and i only use two fingers of the right hand for typing letters (I even use my index for L x.x) and the middle finger for backspace/enter. I feel like it would be just too much effort to try and relearn muscle memory for QWERTY because I would just go back to old habits by default, whereas a completely new layout forces me to throw that muscle memory through the window :D. And idk I just feel like ortholinear layout makes so much sense if we decide to have each key assigned to one finger, I co-blame staggered layout for my wild typing all over the place.

[@giovannidelarosa2865]

Wow. I literally just did this exact same thing but with a Keyboardio Atreus. I’m at about 30wpm after a week. I don’t think I’ll beat you to 60wpm jaja. Some much I relate to in this video 🤯

[@bruce4139]

I type 50 wpm with qwerty and in just shy of a week I'm typing roughly 30-35 wpm with colemak with 96-97% accuracy so I'm improving quite fast I find but if you go back and type at your original speed let's say 15wpm it will feel extremly slow which is always a nice feeling

[@sebastiansoto3595]

Nice video, just subscribed and I hope to see your channel grow. Good quality my man!

[@alexwexov4298]

I switched recently to Colemak DHM too, but the variants (Angle, Wide, Sym) are a little bit confusing.

[@CyberWorldwithPratik]

Very informative and very helpful... keep it up.. you deserve 1000x more subscribers... dont give up.. wish you all the best

[@hanazuki333]

2 weeks but how many hours a day you would say ?

[@stuarthahn]

It took me about 9 hours of total practice time to hit 60wpm.

[@aftabhussain4036]

day 3 of learning colemak... just hit 37wpm

[@primistandem6781]

The algorithm brought me here. Praise the algorithm!

[@klofisch]

yes...this unspecific feeling when RSIR starts...

[@fille.imgnry]

So where do put your mouse? In between the boards?

[@gas33z]

can you share your moonlander layout?

[@Adoniash]

Blocked as soon as you said DH

[@karlosdelacruz3803]

Damn I really wish I could switch; I entertained the idea for a while but QWERTY is just everywhere. I wish companies would just agree on a new standard/layout. Anything would be better than QWERTY.

[@thestopper5165]

Assessing typing in 'raw' WPM is only useful if it's done 'blind' - i.e., no peeking at the keys during the test - AND there's some evaluation of error, such as 'raw' accuracy, or number of keystrokes used for corrections. My personal preference is to do ALL 'speed' assessments with 'nopeek', and with tight monitoring of the number of errors and the number of keystrokes required to correct those errors. So then "% accuracy" is "[Total Keystrokes]/[Error-free Keystrokes]), which is how MonkeyType calculates it. As an example: when I 'converted' to Wokman-P my 'raw' *peek-allowed* speed was 70wpm (@97% accuracy)... but my *no-peek* spped was 10wpm. Lastly: assessing a payout bsed on the 1000 (or 5000,) most common words is not sensible. What should be tested is a sample set that reflects *an average body of text in your workflow* - most of the words in the top 100 most common, rarely appear in a programmer's workflow, for example.

[@jermm2183]

If you wanted workman layout it's not hard, 2 easy methods 1. EASIEST. Just remap your keys with autohotkey (autokey for linux unless u have autohotkey on WINE) 2. HARDER. If on windows (I've never tried this on mac/linux) install microsoft 3.5.1 .NET framework than install KLC (might be KLS, it's made by microsoft.) from there just convert the keys, make it into a .dll file, then go to your settings and add language and put that file in. I used this method for my colemak dh for ANSI keyboard on windows and works great for me

[@SkyGrel19]

Hey! Everything you've said are literally steps of my journey of switcing to a new layout and keyboard 😂 I am waiting for the moonlander mark 1 keyboard, I learned colemak-dhm in last two weeks (exactly the same modification) and services I used are keybr, monkeytype and typeracer. So much coincidences xD

[@trentseymore7385]

Anybody around here know where I might download the "fat z" version of Colemak-dhk? I'm using an Ansi keyboard, and want the left shift key to be turned into a letter z. Also I'm on Windows 10.

[@SleepyDudu]

I recently switched to colemak-dh, using microsoft's tool and didn't even loose "paste" ctrl+d works the same as regular ctrl+v

[@chestertabuzo3087]

is their any program i can use to switch back and fort from qwerty to colemak-dh and colemak-dh to qwerty or kinds of layouts?

[@Spectarium]

I went with dvorak for my layout and I am practicing as i'm writing this comment

[@svetlin_dp]

Workman has a great goal and it achieves it however it is not that much better than Colemak at keeping letters out of the homerow and it actually creates a ton of sacrifices to achieve this. You did good to choose Colemak.

[@JacquesvanWyk]

So for someone that wants to get into layouts and still typing with two fingers would you suggest first learning qwerty or could you go for colemak straight away?

[@shrugalic]

I'd go for an efficient and comfortable layout right away, rather than bothering with QWERTY. Unlearning QWERTY is one of the challenges when switching. I switched to Colemak about 15 years ago, after having been a touch typist for another 15 years, so there was quite a bit of muscle memory to overcome. Colemak felt more comfortable quickly, and after 3 weeks I was at half my previous speed, which was good enough for everything. It took me about a year to be become as fast as before, and faster since. My main goal was increased comfort / decreased effort when typing for a living, and I think it worked. Note I had previously changed to an ergonomic keyboard (Kinesis Advantage), which is also a major contributor to comfort. I came to strongly prefer keyboards with straight columns and thumb keys, that's been a journey on its own (ErgoDox, Moonlander, Kinesis 360).

[@JacquesvanWyk]

@@shrugalic thanks for reply and yes I think when I get voyager keyboard I will learn different layout.

[@shrugalic]

@@JacquesvanWyk Ah, a Voyager is a pretty solid keyboard, got one myself recently. It's a bit minimal for my taste, having had 6 thumb keys for years, but it's definitely very transportable due to its size. Since you're not used to many thumb keys yet I suppose you'll be fine with two per thumb, and with different functions for tap and hold it can feel like four keys per thumb. I find the brown Choc switches a bit harder to press than anticipated, even though I've been using Cherry browns and clears for years. The ZSA configurator Oryx is best in class, no matter which of their keyboards you pick.

[@JacquesvanWyk]

So between voyager and moonlander then you would go for more thumb buttons? That is one thing worrying me because I use alot of programs that have leader keys so maybe moonlander is better option. Agggh the choices lol@@shrugalic

[@tiqur8157]

Great video + amazing video quality! Underrated channel for sure

[@koekie7003]

tried to switch a while ago, gave up after two days, gonna try again now lol

[@samueltremblay275]

I found it difficult to install a colemak dh layout because I didn't found an installer. One important thing for me is being able to install it rapidly on any new computer that I have to work on. Switching to colemak and qwerty back and forth is really hard in my experience so after learning colemak, I think I'm now dependent of this layout so the easy installation on a new computer is really important.

[@MaicolLopezMora]

Can you please share your moonlander layout ? thanks.

[@UltraZelda64]

About two decades ago, when the Colemak layout was brand new, I chose to learn Dvorak liteally *because* of its age. It was tried and true, and designed from scratch, completely ignoring the inefficiencies of QWERTY. It did its own thing, scientifically engineered; it was perhaps harder to learn than Colemak because only two letters (A/M) remained the same, but once mastered, although my speed remained similar, my accuracy and ability to type without even touching the keyboard shot way up.

[@Male_Parent]

That's what I was thinking would be the thought process. Older would mean more support. Windows would've likely gotten dvorak support far before it got colemak support. Back then there wasn't really options for modifying a microcontroller for inputs, you had to have the OS convert the qwerty inputs into Dvorak or whatever layouts where supported.

[@newtonnath74]

Such a high quality video. Good job, man

[@alsmith8633]

What do you think about the wide mod or symbol mods for Colemak DH? And can we use the Matrix colemak layout for regular keyboards such as ANSI or ISO? I want to retain the Z position in the far left corner for CTRL+Z Undo. Amazing video!

[@marcello4258]

keybr does not have colemak dh but you used dh? nice :D

[@SoraAkiraMusic]

I’ve learned Dvorak in middle school, and I can still get 100WPM on it. Considering that Dvorak is decent out of the box, while unmodified Colemak strains you every time you type “the”, Dvorak is the best keyboard layout that can be used without external installation (like with MSKLC or Keyman).

[@houghwhite411]

Interesting. Funnily that I use dvorak on my phone keyboard but qwerty on my work and home keyboard. It's pretty ergonomic on phone

[@lmcerluain2307]

@@houghwhite411 bro wut

[@alexandruc.5128]

Everybody designs keyboards for the English language's most common words, but nobody ever things about programmers who use keyboards in totally different ways.

[@NazraT1704]

There’s programmers Dvorak at least. I haven’t heard of others, but with how many layouts there are I wouldn’t be surprised

[@AlexsanderPerusso]

The best informative video about typing!!!!

[@GreatWalker]

9:48 you mean before sleep?

[@bitonic589]

60 wpm is average lmao 😂

[@alterego157]

QWERTY is awesome, easy 140-150 wpm.

[@HCforLife1]

So how come my all programmers friends typing 120-200 wpm on querty? For some change of the layout will do a lot. Some prefer querty over the other ones. Hate fanboy narrative toward things

[@NazraT1704]

Because they spend all day typing and have probably been using QWERTY for decades. That doesn’t mean it’s the best comfort wise, or that you won’t get RSIs from using it. He never said you can’t type fast with QWERTY, just that it isn’t the best layout ergonomically

[@nizexlizzy]

I’m confused about all the switching layouts. 1) Qwerty is everywhere so any other type you use would require you to carry a keyboard with you everywhere. 2) You will not type faster on any other layout, this has been proven over and over. The fastest typers are always on Qwerty. 3) Once you get to where you can type on another layout the same as you do on qwerty any pain you had will still be there. There are plenty of videos and tests showing that 100% of the alternate keyboard hype ends up being nothing more than preference with zero actual benefits. Just seems a huge waste of time in the end and a huge problem unless you plan to take a keyboard everywhere you go.

[@redder0118]

although alternate layouts may not improve the max speed cap you can reach, personally i have a much more enjoyable experience when i type now due to moving my fingers less across the keyboard, and i caught up to my old speed in about 2 months.

[@nizexlizzy]

@@redder0118 And that is awesome, but if you do anything like programming and using an editor like vim, or doing video editing or pretty much anything else where keyboard shortcuts are heavily used, you'll be sent to hell very quickly. ie: In VIM you use hjkl to move left up down and right and you can not imagine how quickly you can edit files with these keys alone, but there are many more. When you start changing your layout you end up having shortcuts that are too twisted to use. And again, you have to carry a keyboard around with you that is programmed to support your preferences and 100% of other computers used Qwerty. The benefits, other than you trying to be different are just pointless.

[@khytron06]

Jokes on you I type at 120 wpm average with qwerty and 137 highest.

[@bigsamuelofficial8368]

Yes, the keyboard layout is not so usefull for fast typing, and in my opinion for one who work with the computer 60wpm are not so fast (mi average is 80wpm, and i don't use the pc so much)

[@christianklement]

the troll is strong

[@farhanaditya2647]

so what bruh. it's not mean to increase your typing speed.

[@bigsamuelofficial8368]

Change the layout is useless, with qwerty my average is 80wpm (and i don't use the pc so much), i have see that a lot of people here type 30wpm, and this is pretty funny because they don't want to improve their speed but they only want to type fast without know what they are writing

[@bigsamuelofficial8368]

@@丛雨线 who cares

[@Ashjo]

Why exactly is it useless?

[@farhanaditya2647]

it's not mean to increase your typing speed.

[@equiman]

"gnusenpai Colemak Club" is another great site to learn the Colemak (variants) layouts. It helps me to learn the whole keys through 6 levels.