Typing is something that many of us do daily, whether browsing the internet, composing emails, using social media, or working on a document. We each have a way of typing that we're most comfortable with.

There are four main typing techniques: touch typing, hunt and peck typing, hybrid typing, and thumb typing. Let's look at each of them briefly.

1. Touch Typing

When you type without looking at your keyboard, that's touch typing. Because you rely on muscle memory, you can focus on your screen without looking at your keyboard.

While touch typing, place all ten fingers on the keyboard, with your fingers on the home row and both thumbs on the space bar. There are bumps on keyboards on the F and J keys to help you locate the home row without looking at your keyboard.

Touch typing is the fastest and most professional typing technique, and it takes practice to master. Thankfully, there are sites you can visit to learn touch typing in no time at all.

2. Hunt-and-Peck Typing

Many use the hunt-and-peck typing technique, or two-finger typing, focusing on the keyboards instead of the screen. It involves using two fingers, typically the index ones, to hunt and press keys on our keyboard.

Because it relies on watching the keyboard rather than muscle memory, it's the slowest typing technique and is prone to inaccuracy. On the flip side, it's also the easiest and the most common.

Hunt-and-peck typing won't help you become a faster typer, but it's an excellent place to start if you're a beginner typist.

3. Hybrid Typing

This technique combines touch typing with the hunt-and-peck technique. You rely on muscle memory and hunting and pecking to ensure both speed and accuracy.

Typists who haven't quite mastered touch typing might use hybrid typing. If you're trying to learn touch typing, you can start with hybrid typing and work your way up from there.

4. Buffering

Like watching a video that refuses to load, this typing technique involves tapping out a few keys or words, then pausing to see what comes next.

The buffering typing technique is also time-consuming but is sometimes used when working from different media or another content source to double check what's written is correct.

However, it isn't fast and isn't recommended for everyday typing tasks.

Thumb Typing

Since smartphones and other small touchscreen devices don't have physical keyboards, other typing techniques on this list don't apply. Instead, they use thumb typing to tap on their virtual keyboards.

Because most people around the world have access to a smartphone, thumb typing is the most convenient typing technique there is. The downside is that small keyboards can make typing on a phone clunky and slow.

Improve Your Typing With Practice

We don't all need to be skilled typists, but there's nothing with practicing until you master touch typing or typing on your phone. After all, typing is a skill that everyone can benefit from improving.

By practicing regularly, you can increase your typing speed and accuracy. If you keep at it long enough and employ a few tips and tricks along the way, you'll find yourself capable of churning out an impressive number of words per minute on your device.

So, start practicing your typing today!