I spent 40 years learning to type. Now I am learning to unlearn it.

I spent 40 years learning to type. Now I am learning to unlearn it.

Voice-first — speaking instead of typing — is three to five times faster. The figures are clear: typing achieves 40–60 words a minute, speaking 120–160.

And yet it is damn hard.

An example from my everyday life:

Before: typing an email, three to five minutes per message. Writing, rewriting, correcting typos, checking it again, sending.

Today: I simply speak the email naturally. With ums, pauses and repetitions. I use the WisprFlow app for this. My AI assistant turns it into an email — in my tone, following my specifications and using my examples. Time: one to two minutes.

To make it tangible, a back-of-the-envelope calculation:

• Average email: 125 words
• Typing: 50 words a minute → 2.5 minutes of pure typing plus thinking, wording, corrections and another check → three to five minutes total
• Speaking plus AI: 140 words a minute → under a minute plus a quick check → one to two minutes total
• Saving: two to three minutes per email, roughly half

For me, at ten emails a day:

• 25 minutes a day
• Two hours a week
• 100 hours a year

Extrapolated to a company with 1,000 employees averaging five emails a day:

• 208 hours a day
• 48,000 hours a year

That equates to 28 FTEs.

<End of the back-of-the-envelope calculation>

But:

My fingers still reach for the keyboard. Still. After decades of two-finger typing, muscle memory is deeply ingrained.

Why am I sticking with it anyway?

Because it is the best personal change-management experience I can have.

First: start with yourself. Those who demand change from others should feel what it is like themselves.

Second: experience how hard it is. Transformation is not an event. It is the daily struggle with habits that will not let go. Even when the figures are clear.

This has nothing to do with AI hype. It is simply efficiency through pragmatism: simple tools, no huge project, ready to use immediately. But also: uncomfortable. Not quickly done. Real work on yourself.

Voice-first is not a productivity hack for me. It is a reality check.

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