Sit, rest, and find the bumps

Touch typing means your fingers know where the keys are so your eyes do not have to. It is not a talent. It is a set of small habits, built one pair of keys at a time, and this course is the order we build them in. Every lesson has the same shape: a short read like this one, then a few drills that only ever use keys you have already met, then a check that tells you whether the lesson has stuck. Nothing is timed until you are ready for a clock.

Start with the chair, not the keyboard. Sit so your forearms are roughly level with the desk and your elbows hang near your sides. Your wrists should float a little above the keyboard rather than press into the desk, and your shoulders should stay down. If you notice them creeping up toward your ears, that is a sign you are tense, and tense fingers make slow, clumsy keystrokes.

Now the hands. Run a fingertip along the middle row of letters and you will feel a small raised bar on two keys: F and J. Those bumps exist so that you can find the resting position without looking. Put your left index finger on F and your right index finger on J. Let the other fingers settle onto the keys beside them. Both thumbs rest lightly on the space bar. This is the home position, and every reach you ever make starts here and comes back here.

• Press F with the left index finger and J with the right.
• Press the space bar with whichever thumb is more comfortable, and keep using that one.
• After each key, the finger returns to its bump. Do not hover somewhere in between.