Alternative keyboard layout changed my digital life

I have started learning to use a computer keyboard when I was around 3-4 years old, thanks to my fathers Amiga 500 computer. I've enjoyed the few games that were made and purchased before my birth. It's not a thought that might have crossed my mind even once, when there were so many beautiful images generated by this hefty machine.
And learning my ways around it, meant a lot of time spent on the slow process of hunt and peck, which evolved with my programming experience into surprisingly advanced and fast two finger typing.

For years I was used to being able to sit down infront of any QWERTY keyboard and in seconds feel it's layout well enough, to find every key with just my index and middle fingers. No matter the sitting postition, no matter the type.

But a year ago, during the pandemic, when most of my days were spent, not doing much else than typing away in front of a monitor, I've decided to learn typing like a pro. With all the 10 fingers. But when starting out with even the most basic tasks on e.g. https://typing.com, I've felt serious discomfort, trying to break the two finger habit and seeing how slow I was, constantly made me feel, that what I was doing was wrong and wasteful use of time.
But I did not give up.

Quick research on latest advancements in computer keyboard layouts, gave me options:
a) Dvorak - a CRAZILY different layout from Qwerty and quite an old one
b) Colemak - a fairly recent creation, which promised to only optimise the biggest issues of Qwerty.
And as an IT technician by trade, I chose Colemak, hoping it is going to help me break my habits and adapt this newly learned ability, back onto Qwerty.

Colemak is... not great

It has quickly turned out, that the optimisations brought by colemak, are quickly outweighed by it's deficiencies, like completely messed up and difficult to access default shortcuts and still a lot of text being input by right hand. (Qwerty has most common letters under the left hand)

BUT! It was a step in right direction, to learn all fingers typing. After a month of practice on https://typing.com, I was still struggling with finding the letters and had to peek at the keys quite often, but still getting about 40WPM on https://typeracer.com. And a month was enough for me to say "Colemak has hurt my fingers enough, let's look once again, maybe I've missed a better solution".

Meeting the work-man inside me

I've seen the name workman pop-up a few times in my initial search, but almost no adoption and difficult installation process, made me not consider it at all. (there are no official layouts for any other lanugage, other that EN-US, forcing me to either look dumb, not using Polish letters, or create my own layouts, which I did :D )

But I've installed it on a windows installation I use for school and after a few levels on https://typing.com, I was in love.
The layout is a fully mathematically optimised Qwerty layout, with no compromises, other than the special character buttons and most common shortcuts (CTRL+VCXZSQA). Meaning, after a month with it, I was at a stable 40WPM, after 2 months at 50WPM, now, after almost a year, steadily exceeding the 70WPM mark, I can express myself digitally with signinficantly more freedom, and much less stress put on my fingers.

I am 100% recommending a switch to an alternative layout in a less work intensive time for you, especially if you are going to choose Workman. That's why, in a few days, I will be writing down a concise guide on how to start your journey with the workman layout. If you are a professional programmer, your hands are going to be grateful.

Cheers :)