Why You Should Stop Hurting Yourself and Use Colemak Already

Let’s talk about typing. Yep, that thing we do for hours every day—clacking away like a caffeinated woodpecker on Teams, VSCode, Discord, vim, whatever. And you’re doing it with… QWERTY? In The Year of Our Lord Twenty Twenty-Five?

Yikes.

QWERTY: A Beautiful Disaster

As I’m sure you’ve heard before, QWERTY wasn’t designed for you. It was designed to stop 19th-century typewriter hammers from jamming. That’s right—your modern digital fingers are living under the iron-fisted rule of a layout built to accommodate mechanical failure. It’s like strapping wooden wheels to a Tesla.

You deserve better.

Enter: Colemak

Colemak is what you get when someone looks at QWERTY and goes, “Okay, but what if we fixed it without making everyone cry?”

It’s a layout designed with:

  • Ergonomics in mind,

  • Efficiency, because 17 fewer keystrokes per 100 words adds up fast,

  • Familiarity, since it only moves 17 keys from QWERTY (unlike Dvorak, which feels like learning to walk on stilts while on fire).

You retain most of your muscle memory, especially punctuation and shortcuts (Ctrl+C/V/Z? Untouched). But now, the most common letters live under your strongest fingers on the home row. Imagine that—your fingers don’t have to climb Mount Spacebar just to type “the.”

Don’t believe me? Behold this heatmap of the 1000 most common English words, and guess what? On Colemak, they basically live on the home row. Your fingers barely move. It’s not just comfy—it’s disturbingly efficient. You’ll feel like a wizard. A lazy wizard. The best kind.

Colemak top 1000 English Words Heatmap

Key Rolling: The Butter of Typing

Here’s where Colemak really flexes: key rolls. That’s when your fingers flow from one key to the next in a natural, satisfying rhythm—like a tiny finger wave. Colemak is optimized for this kind of movement. Instead of awkward stretches and jagged jumps (looking at you, QWERTY’s “th” and “ed”), you get sequences like “he,” “in,” and “on” that roll effortlessly under neighboring fingers. It feels right, like your keyboard is suddenly in sync with your nervous system.

Typing becomes not just fast—it becomes fun. Addicting, even. You’ll catch yourself grinning mid-email because “instead” just rolled off your fingers like a piano arpeggio. And once you feel it, QWERTY starts to feel like typing with boxing gloves on.

The Painful Joy of Switching

Let’s not lie—switching layouts is like learning to write with your non-dominant hand while everyone you know continues typing 120 WPM like gods. You’ll curse. You’ll doubt. You’ll type “teh” instead of “the” for the 900th time and question your life choices.

But one day, your fingers will start to float. You’ll stop bottoming out like a jackhammer and instead glide across the keys like some kind of weird, ergonomic pianist. You’ll finish a sentence without pain or effort and go:

“Oh. So this is what it’s supposed to feel like.”

Real Experience: Why I Stuck With Colemak

I’ve been using Colemak as my main layout for over five years now. On it, I type comfortably at around 130 words per minute. I can still use QWERTY when I need to—at about 80 WPM—but the difference is noticeable. QWERTY feels clunky and tiring by comparison, especially during long sessions.

With Colemak, typing feels smoother and more natural. My fingers stay on the home row more often, and I don’t get the same fatigue I used to. It’s not just about speed—it’s about ease and comfort over time. That’s ultimately what convinced me to stick with it.

Is Colemak for Everyone?

Yes. If you type a lot and you value your wrists, your speed, or your sanity, then Colemak is for you. Writers. Programmers. Bloggers writing rants about keyboard layouts. Anyone who wants to live a better life, one keystroke at a time.

The only exception is if you use Dvorak. Otherwise?

Just Switch Already

You can install Colemak on pretty much everything. Linux? Yep. macOS? Absolutely. Windows? Shockingly, yes (though you’ll have to actually download it, unlike every other operating systems where it’s included by default… because Windows). There’s even Colemak-DH, a variant for folks who want even more ergonomic bliss. And for the bold: remap your physical keyboard too and really commit like I did here.

So stop punishing yourself with legacy layouts. Embrace Colemak.

Your fingers will thank you.