Since I started working as a software developer, I’ve had to type more than I’ve ever had to before.  It’s really made me wish that I would have taken the Mother Goose typing game in elementary school more seriously.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty proficient at typing, just not as accurate or as fast as I’d like to be.

I started searching for a simple typing tutor program and found the excellent gtypist.  Gtypist is a free GNU (I know, redundant) command line utility to teach touch typing and even has support for the Dvorak keyboard layout  and many other languages.

It’s been a frustrating process so far, because old habits die hard.  It almost feels like trying to learn guitar after I had been playing piano for years.  The end goal was the same (play music/type) but the process felt very difficult and awkward.  After a lot of practice, I’m finally comfortable on the guitar and hopefully my typing will come around.  So what do you think?  Is all the work of learning new habits worth it for a slight productivity increase, or would have sticking with my old hunt and peck habits been a better idea?