Visual Performance for Typists

The parameter measuring speed for typists conceals visual efficiency rate. Most people are type-based, determining speed using central vision per letter. Such an instance, for a 5-minute test, inspires rapid eye fatigue. Visual tracking for typists anchors position via peripheral vision and central vision works to predispose oncoming text for flowing screen data to your fingers as files.

The “Cursor Anchor” Technique

It is normal to “lose your place” in a paragraph during a long test, especially in a test with dense text. One of the tricks of good visual tracking for typists is to treat the cursor in your peripheral vision as your anchor. You do not need to look at the cursor, but you do need to focus on its “glow” or its movement. While your peripheral vision is watching the cursor track page down to assure you are not skipping lines, you central vision is on 2-3 words ahead of the cursor. This “split-focus” is aimed at the conceptual or tactical leading words of the words to come.

Minimizing Eye Travel

Every time your eyes move to your keyboard or look away completely, your brain needs to reset. This process takes about 200–500 milliseconds. In 5 minutes, if you look away 20 times, you lose about 10 seconds of typing time. In lesson 53, you’ll be faced with a “Fixed-Gaze” challenge. Keep your gaze locked. Looking away is an urge you will need to resist. When you feel like looking at your hands, think about the home row. The keys you feel nearest are the middle keys. The less you look away, the better your brain stays in a “Continuous Processing Mode” while typing, and the better your chances are of achieving over 45 WPM.

Eye Fatigue and the “Soft Focus”

By the last minute of a 5 minute test, the “soft focus” will help eliminate the strain on your eye. The soft focus is really just a focus on relaxation. Your eye muscles focus with more intensity when you relax. When you relax, your eye muscles are less ‘intense’ and so is the strain on your muscles. Higher intensity focus tends to ‘blur’ a lot, causing distractions, which is also extremely inconvenient and is something you have likely experienced during typing tests. Balancing focus with relaxation is just as important as figuring out the best key strokes when you are typing professionally.