I’ve considered dvorak before. However, today, after reading a lifehack article on the topic, I decided to convert to the dvorak layout for one month. After, I will evaluate the usefulness and decide if I switch or return to qwerty.

My goals are:

• Increased efficiency: Dvorak seems much more efficient and I’m all for ‘rocking the boat’ when the boat is leaking.
• Decreased wrist pain: I have chronic wrist pain from years of martial arts coupled with years of computer work. I’m hoping the decreased movements of the dvorak layout will help.
• Learning something new: I haven’t been devloping any new skills of late, and it’s time to start growing as a person. As Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding said so well, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

My plan of attack is as follows:

• Not a good measure of typing speed – words you type become muscle memory after time, and the combinations offered by keybr are not commonly used words.
• The lack of commonly used words reinforces hard combinations and prevents me from only becoming proficient at the easy combinations. Very good.
• Only works in IE — and I am not a fan of the M$ junkpile bug-fest that it is.
• Has dvorak oriented lessons which target dvorak combinations specifically
• Displays an on-screen keyboard to prevent looking at hands while typing.