Touch Typing with One Hand

I am trying to figure out how to touch type with one hand. I think I'm doing pretty well, since I'm typing this very post with only my right hand. I don't know what prompted me to want to do this; perhaps it's my interest in doing things differently (such as trying to be ambidextrous), or maybe I had to try to type in a search while holding a phone one too many times. In any case, it's kinda fun.


My method and findings so far: I place my index finger on the "F" key and let my other fingers rest on the G, H, and J keys. This puts my hand right in the center of the keyboard and is convenient for finding my hand placement because of the little ridge on the F. I was somewhat surprised how little I had to think about how to get to the various keys. I have to stretch a little further, but I can find my way fairly easily. I suppose all the years I've been touch typing in general has given me a pretty solid idea of how the QWERTY keyboard is laid out.

Now, the main thing that feels really different from typing with both hands is how much more I'm using my little finger. Here's what I mean; my index finger hits 12 letters, middle finger only 3, ring finger 4, and little finger 6 letters plus the semicolon, comma, period, quotes, backspace, and enter. (I was hitting the "I" with my little finger also, but I was getting terribly confused with the I, O, and P, so I started just stretching my ring finger to get to it.)

Alright, so I wanted to see how fast I could type this way right when I was first learning. I did a control test by seeing how long it takes me to type a random page of a book normally, which came to about 70 words per minute. Then I typed that same page with just the one hand, and it came to a whopping 9 words per minute. My second try gave me 11 wpm. Yay! Never mind that it took me more than 45 minutes per try, I'm confident I can get it up to at least 50 wpm with a bit more practice.


More related thoughts: So one thing I noticed is that, unlike typing with two hands, I will occasionally vary which finger I use for certain keys. This has to do with which words I'm typing. For example, for the word "there" I will alternate between my index and middle finger for the "ere" because it's easier and more efficient than using only my index. This made me wonder how it might be possible to find the most effective typing pattern for any word? Or even better, the best keyboard layout for one hand? It would have to take into account not only the most common keys used, but the most common combinations of letters in a language and the fact that the little finger wears out faster than the others. Also, perhaps the thumb could be more useful?

Just a starting place for these thoughts, I'll probably start looking up custom keyboards now. I know a little about the DVORAK, but that's about it.