Want to be more productive then get a new keyboard

Earlier this year as my trusty old Lenovo X61s started to draw it’s last breadths I made the decision to swap over to using products from the people who have been making my personal machines for nearly 25 years and got a 13inch Mac Book Air as my primary work device. I coupled this with a 27 inch Cinema display and the fantastic BookArc from Twelve South. I was going to need something to type on. I took the easy option and went for the very sleek looking Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. It looked the part but sadly as the months went buy I realized that was about all it did.

I type quite a lot. I am not an efficient typist. That I can remember I was never taught to type. Perhaps if I had it might work for me, but it does not. I need a good old fashioned bash the keys hard type of input device. You know like real computers of yesteryear had on them. Real key switches, not a big membrane with key tops.

I found that a company based up in Canada called Matias make such a thing, the Tactile Pro. It is heavy, in fact very heavy, it is noisy, really very noisy but it is so lovely to type on. the weight means it does not move no matter how hard I punch at the keys (the best way I can describe my typing style). the noise would drive people crazy if you were in a shared workspace, but I am not so apart from typing when I am on the phone it is not an issue for me. However that audio feedback is important to me. It helps create a rhythm, my typing is more accurate and faster and those combined are good as they enable me to get more work done and to be more creative.

Next time you need to do some typing go get a proper keyboard and plug it into your laptop. I think you will be amazed at what it can do.