I Found My Productivity MACHINE After a Decade of Keyboards

After a decade of searching for the perfect typing setup, I discovered something surprising: the quest for productivity isn’t about finding the fastest keyboard—it’s about crafting a system that works with your body, not against it.

Like many programmers, I spent years hunched over traditional keyboards, reaching for awkward key combinations and arrow keys, thinking this was just how things were done.

A recent gift I got from a subscriber, in the form a Batman shaped keyboard, got my head wheels spinning and I decided to share a few lessons I learned from it as well as why I’m not going to use it daily.

As you’ve probably guessed, I’ve been using traditional keyboards my entire life, and even more so, throughout my professional software engineering journey starting around 2013.
While I wasn’t feeling any pain during those years, only recently, after changing my keyboard setup I realized how it was affecting my body far beyond typing speed and efficiency.

Posture, chest, wrists, even breathing. Yes… I literally figured my breathing was affected by the naturally hunched, contracted chest posture I had.

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Most developers try to solve their productivity problems by memorizing more shortcuts or forcing themselves to type faster.

They invest in premium mechanical keyboards, hoping better switches will somehow transform their workflow.

But here’s the thing: even the most expensive traditional keyboard still forces your body into unnatural positions. Your shoulders stay tight, your wrists bend awkwardly, and your thumbs remain tragically underused—doing nothing but hitting the spacebar.

Here’s what changed everything for me: treating my keyboard as a living, breathing part of my workflow rather than a static tool.

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By switching to a split keyboard setup, specifically the Moonlander (not sponsored or affiliated, just ❤️ the product), I discovered that true productivity comes from adapting your tools to your body’s natural mechanics.

Your hands can rest at shoulder width, your thumbs can handle multiple actions, and every key can serve multiple purposes through clever layering.

The result? Not just faster typing, but sustainable, comfortable productivity that lasts all day.

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Beyond being quicker on the keys, there’s something very soothing to the mind where you find everything your fingers “need” without giving it a conscious thought. This friction-removal is extremely important for those of us who write code:

Therefore, having everything at your fingertips, including symbols, numbers, modifiers etc. is crucial if you want to up your quality.

As someone who uses Kubernetes on a daily basis, requiring command line shortcuts and invests a lot in keyboard aliases, the ability to mold them into a key combo, or drop them into a different keyboard layer was extremely helpful to me.

This goes beyond just code, just like vim can be used to improve any kind of text editing; writing a novel or taking notes in your second brain, similarly, a properly configured keyboard can benefit every writer.

The game-changer wasn’t learning to type faster—it was learning to type smarter.

Now my keyboard moves with me, not against me. My thumbs handle common actions like backspace and layer switching, while my fingers stay in their natural positions.

Even better, I can sip my coffee while coding, with my keyboard split at the perfect width for my coffee mug to sit between the halves. This isn’t just about ergonomics—it’s about creating a workspace that feels like an extension of your body ☕
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Want to put this into action?
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Start small. Even before investing in a split keyboard, try repositioning your current keyboard throughout the day. Pay attention to when your wrists or shoulders feel tense. Notice which keys force awkward hand movements. These observations will guide you toward a more natural typing setup, whether you eventually go split or not.

If you’re curious about my own layout configuration you can find it here. It’s not perfect, and very much a work in progress, but please do reply with ideas and comments!
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What’s next?

I’ve been playing with the idea of changing the traditional QWERT keys layout to Colemak. I’m not expecting it to improve speed, but like the above - improve movement and ease of typing. Stay tuned 😅

Thanks for reading! See ya next week.

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