typing, you’re doing it wrong

I do not know how to type properly.  When I actually stopped and watched myself do it, I realized that I use only my right thumb and index finger, and my left thumb, middle and ringer fingers.  I use my left pinky to hit the left shift.  I don’t know that I’ve ever used the right shift button at all.  It’s never really bothered me before–I’ve written three novels that way, and pretty quickly, but since I’ve been trying to transcribe my fourth, I’m noticing how badly I really suck at typing.  I’m hitting wrong keys all over the place.  Two sentences ago in this very post I gave up on proper typing and went back to my crab-claw style.  It was just taking too long, and I was hitting all kinds of wrong keys; and though it’s just as bad accuracy-wise this way, at least I can go faster than a depressed tortoise.

It made me think of other things that I do in an overcomplicated way because I never learned the “proper” way.  Two immediately came to mind, and I’m sure there are others.  1) I have a hard time jumping rope going forward.  I’ve always been much more comfortable going backward.  2) I don’t tie my shoes normally; I make two “bunny ears” and tie them around each other.  I blame my kindergarten day-card provider for that one.

The jump roping and the shoe tying don’t so much bother me, but my typing is terrible.  I want to learn how to do it properly and accurately, but it takes so much to completely relearn a skill like that.  How many other things in my life do I do incorrectly simply because I learned it that way and don’t want to take the time to learn correctly?