Typing 118 WPM Broke My Brain in the Right Ways (A Year-Long Journey)

Typing became my therapy. Not even kidding.

Started at 60 WPM, felt like dragging my feet through mud every time I had to write code comments or documentation. Now? 118 WPM. No home row bullshit. No "proper finger placement." Just pure, chaotic rhythm. Proof here because I know you don't believe me.

My Daily Brain Reset Ritual

Every morning, before I even think about opening VS Code, before Slack starts destroying my soul, before the daily standup where we pretend we know what we're doing, I just type. Five minutes. That's it.

It's like meditation but actually useful. Resets my brain, calms the static from yesterday's debugging session, and gets me in the zone. Way better than staring at my ceiling wondering why I chose this career.

Speed is Useless if You're Wrong

Here's the thing that took me way too long to figure out: rushing makes everything worse. Every time I tried to go fast, I'd mess up, backspace like crazy, and end up slower than when I started. Classic developer move, honestly.

So I slowed down. Focused on hitting every key right. And boom — speed just... happened. 90 WPM, 100 WPM, 118 WPM. All came when I was hitting 100% accuracy consistently.

It's like debugging. You can't just randomly change stuff and hope it works. You gotta be methodical, get it right, then optimize. Same energy.

Some words still absolutely wreck me though. "Obviously" keeps coming out as "obviousily" and I want to throw my keyboard every time. So now I just slow down for those demon words and blast through the rest. Strategic speed management or whatever.

Screw the Rules, Find Your Flow

Plot twist: I don't type "correctly" at all. My fingers just go wherever they want. It's like anarchist typing. My left pinky probably hasn't touched the 'A' key in months, but somehow I'm still in the 99.5 percentile.

Turns out the "proper way" is just a suggestion. Like following PEP 8 or using semicolons in JavaScript. Sure, it's nice, but if your way works better, who cares?

When Your Brain is Fried

You know those days when you've been staring at the same bug for 3 hours and your brain feels like mush? Or when you've been doomscrolling Twitter instead of working and feel dead inside?

That's when I open Keybr. It's like going to the gym but for your neurons. Good typing session = instant mood boost. Small win = dopamine hit. Better than coffee, honestly.

Sometimes I use it as a break between coding sessions. Brain getting foggy? Type for 2 minutes. Stuck on a problem? Type. Deployment failed and you want to quit tech forever? You guessed it.

The Inevitable Skill Issue Moments

Not gonna lie, there were weeks where I absolutely tanked. Bad accuracy, slow speeds, feeling like I'd forgotten how to use a keyboard. Classic imposter syndrome but for typing.

"Maybe I'm not actually good at this. Maybe 118 WPM was just a fluke. Maybe I should just stick to hunt-and-peck like a normal person."

But then I'd bounce back. Always. Usually harder and faster than before. It's like when you're stuck on a bug for days and then suddenly the solution is obvious. The struggle makes the breakthrough better.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Been doing this for over a year now. 7,000+ lessons completed on Keybr. My brain genuinely feels different. Not just the typing speed, but focus, discipline, the ability to sit down and just do the thing.

It's one of those weird habits that seems pointless but somehow fixes everything else. Like how learning vim makes you better at thinking about text editing, or how writing tests makes you better at designing APIs.

Real talk: This stupid little habit has probably made me a better developer. Faster at writing code, better at documentation, less frustrated when I have to type out long variable names or commit messages.

Plus, there's something deeply satisfying about watching words appear on screen at the speed of thought. It's like having a direct brain-to-computer interface, but with more finger movement.

So yeah. Typing fixed my brain. And probably made me less annoying in code reviews because I can actually write coherent comments now.

End of story. Now go find your own weird productivity hack that makes no sense but somehow works.