There have been times I wanted to switch layouts but qwerty is just too far in there for too many decades.
I take this to test my speed: https://10fastfingers.com/advanced-typing-test/english
Now I've tried to take the test again after roughly a year, out of curiosity, and I got around 75 several times. Maybe it will improve very slowly past this level?
Do you perhaps remember how the improvement trend was with you?
Thank you for sharing, was useful to compare!
My gut feeling is that this is simply the speed range where the benefits of faster typing during composing quickly fall off. If you're thinking about what to say, you'll write a burst, think, write, think, change a bit, write some more- the limiting factor isn't really WPM.
Transcribing, of course, is another matter, but that is a specialized case.
For reference, my typing while transcribing rate is in the 100-110 range. My daily-use composition is likely half, simply because I spend most of my time composing in my head.
I will say that the big advantage comes from being completely comfortable touch-typing, without needing to look at the keyboard. Once you've achieved that, the mental load of typing fades in to the background, and you can spend more time considering content instead of the mechanics of creating it.
Will try to feel less satisfied with my writing speed, and see if it will help. Thank you for taking time to share!
Are there more effective techniques than just typing? I mean like measured techniques for identifying and improving problematic aspects of typing rather than just going at it repeatedly in the hopes that I'll improve overall?
Maybe try something that forces you to type quickly like the game The Typing of the Dead or The Typing of the Dead 2? They’re silly games but might help since they add urgency to the typing.
If you do change layouts, research them a bit first. I liked dvorak, but it used the right hand more than the left by a fair bit, like the opposite of qwerty. My right hand didn't deal with the strain as well as my left hand did in qwerty. Workman is about 50/50 left and right hand usage, and also avoids putting common letters in the middle two columns, which reduces how often stretching is needed.
Colemak seems a bit better than Dvorak on paper, but still has some flaws that lead to creation of a "mod DH" variant that moves D and H to a less straining spot since they're common letters.
Workman solves the same issue and is a lot more efficient than even Colemak, plus the 50/50 hand balance seems entirely unique to Workman. That balance was why I chose it over the Carpalx QGMLWB layout or the AI-generated Halmak layout, which are even more efficient in some cases than Workman. I have a friend who uses QGMLWB, but as far as I know, he doesn't get any pain in his hands. He also doesn't type quite as fast as I have, which may be related.
Lastly, I want to mention that I built an ergonomic keyboard and used it with dvorak for a couple months without my hand pain going away, which is why I bothered changing layouts again. The journey has been educational. I never used to care about stuff like the pinky being weak and overused. Now I have stuff like backspace and enter on thumb keys, I'm thinking about how much I have to stretch to certain keys, etc.
Some of these ergo keyboards take some keys off the right side compared to something like a 60%, but then you realize your right pinky was covering a huge amount of keys, and maybe it's worth having an extra inner column where you move the = sign to. I use a Pinky4 after using a Pok3r in the past, and it seemed annoying at first that the top row didn't fit the - and = right of the 0, but I prefer it now that I'm used to it. I've tweaked the key layout several times in QMK and it's been a lot of fun. So, I'd recommend both changing layouts and replacing your keyboard if you have any interest in this stuff.