yeah I finally went ahead and learned it

learning to touch type

Until recently, I was typing with an improvised hunt and peck style where I used a combination of my thumb, index, and middle finger of each hand to type. I typed by implicitly knowing the location of the keys and the distance my fingers normally travelled to hit the keys. It's not like I needed to actively search for each key, but I definitely needed a passive view of my fingers/the keyboard in order to accurately hit the right keys. My typing speed was around 60-80 WPM with this hunt and peck style, so it was perfectly usable.

It took about 1-2 months of practicing touch typing to get back up to the speed I was typing at before.

• I used https://www.keybr.com/ for learning the keys. It'll slowly unlock keys for you to practice as you reach a certain WPM threshold for each key.
• I used https://monkeytype.com/ 's quote mode to practice punctuation and typing normal sentences.

It was a weird 1-2 months since when I needed the typing speed I'd revert to my hunt and peck style so I had a usable typing speed, but all of the touch type practice was confusing my brain on how to type and I started mixing the two styles together and degrading the speed of both. With enough time and practice though, I got the hang of touch typing and I fully switched over.

Today, I think I touch type fine. My finger pattern doesn't precisely match what the "proper" finger to key mapping is, but I don't need to look at the keyboard. I've caught back up to my old typing speed. There's still room for improving my speed/accuracy, but I'm in no rush.

https://www.keybr.com/ also provides a fun typing speed over time graph so you can see your progress, in addition to giving you different ways to configure what keys are available and what you practice.