Another Shot at Everyday Blogging
I missed my goal of blogging every day. By a long shot. A 11-day break. What do you do when this happens? Acknowledge the misstep. Don’t crib or sulk. Get right back up and restart again. That’s exactly what I’m doing. Here’s another streak.
Typing Mastery: The Quest for an Error-free 70 Words Per Minute
I have always been decent in typewriting. I learnt this during my 10th standard annual vacations and that has laid a good foundation. However, I don’t know how to operate the number keys and the special characters.
Offlate, I noticed a lot of errors in my typing. This started to slow down my typing and worse, it has started to affect my flow of thoughts. And so I set off on a mission to brush up on my typing lessons. My goal: 70 words per minute with less than 1% errors.
I took up a paid subscription in GoodTyping.com, one of the best online typing mastery websites. I finished all the 48 typing lessons in the last one month. I devoted about half hour each day to practice the lessons and now I average about 50 words per minute with about 2% errors. I intend to take advanced tests every day and my goal is to touch 70 WPM with 1% errors by July 31st.
Why is flawless typing so important to me? For two main reasons. I have been consciously focusing on blogging everyday and aiming to complete the 1000 day blogging challenge. Second, I’m focused on finishing two books this year. Both these ambitious goals require a considerable amount of time at the keyboard. The better I am at typing means the better I will do at both these challenges.
Have you heard of this story of this woodcutter who spent sharpening his axe? That’s the same thing for me with typing.
I would strongly recommend one of two online courses for improving your typing. GoodTyping and KeyHero.
KeyHero, is what I use to test my typing skills in order to reduce the errors.
What is the Use of Listening to Podcasts or Reading Books if I Don’t Act on Them?
A strong realization hit me. All the books that I read, the podcasts I listen to and the conferences I attend are of no use if I don’t act on the knowledge to improve my life or others’ lives.
This realization hit me even harder this morning when I was going through the notes I took in a conference I recently attended. I had written down the four books that the opening keynote speaker had recommended. It’s now over two weeks since the event finished and I had not even so much as even googled for these books let alone buying them.
I then looked at the impressive list of podcasts that I listened to in the last six months. Truly impressive, I must immodestly add. But what’s the use of listening to world-class podcasts if I don’t act on great advice? The same goes for the numerous books I’ve read.
Starting today, I’m making the following changes. 1) I will write down a synopsis with key points of every podcast I listen to and every book that I read. 2) I will put an action plan to implement the advice and suggestions I’ve learned from them.
I will share the important points and my experiments in adopting these best practices openly with you so that you can benefit from them too. Onwards and upwards. Here we go.
Before you kick the bucket! – Deccan Chronicle
A nice preview of ‘The Bucketlist Bootcamp’ event by Deccan Chronicle that appeared in today’s edition. The story mentions what motivated to me start this event. It’s taking place this Saturday & Sunday (Jan 11 & 12) at my farm. (the text is too small. Will post the transcript soon)
