The keyboard is your friend

The keyboard is not going away, despite mice, tablets, touch-sensitive surfaces, or voice control. Hitting keys or buttons on your personal computer, mobile phone, various gadgets or various remote controls in your living room will remain for quite some time. Get to know them and use them efficiently!

This blog focuses on the desktop PC keyboard and the Windows platform, but general principles apply to all other types of keyboards and human-computer interaction.

Time invested in learning to type properly and memorizing keyboard accelerators pays back immediately in saved time and effort -- if you manage to beat its main enemies: the mouse, laziness, habit...

The new digital generation will spend their lives, literally, pushing virtual or physical buttons as they interact with computers and other digital gadgets.

Humans spend about 1/3 of their lives sleeping, but today millions are probably spending another 1/3 of their lives (8 hours per day) typing and clicking, or touching a surface. Our fingertips are, more than ever, extensions of the brain.

Even if your daily job does not include computers, you probably spend a few hours in the evening surfing the net with your hands on the mouse and the keyboard.

You no longer need to be a professional pianist to realize that you also "practice" long hours daily. But are your keyboard technique and efficiency improving accordingly?

Unfortunately, it's hard to improve on anyone's mouse-clicking skills: for example, you can't click or drag it faster without losing precision and it becoming awkward. You cannot use a mouse in a more "intelligent" way than you actually do, because it's a simple point-and-click action that has no alternative.

On the other hard,  when your hands rest on the keyboard, there are always several ways to perform an action, provided you are willing to discover and learn them. Personally, I enjoy learning (and creating) new keystrokes and other shortcuts and see my productivity increase all the time.