Typing all day makes my pinky sore. This is how I got rid of it:

Superuser.com: How do I hit the “Ctrl” key without straining my pinky?

I press both ctrl keys with the edge of my palm. It’s perfect; I don’t have to stretch my pinkies, and my fingers don’t have to move away from where they’re supposed to be.

Only downside is that this technique won’t work flat keyboards like the ones laptops have. For those, I use an ANSI layout with a few modifications:

• CapsLock key is remapped to OS key Reasons why I do it this way:

  • I use the OS key more often than the caps lock key.
  • I use the CTRL key too much (emacs, terminal) that this placement will still hurt my pinky

• And a bottom row layout where the control and alt keys are beside the space bar respectively:

  | CapsLock (optional) | alt | ctrl | space bar | ctrl | alt | 

  This allows me to use my thumb for both the alt and ctrl keys which is powerful for me.

These techniques and layouts here mostly focus on making ctrl and alt keys very accessible because I use them a lot (the shell, emacs).

That’s it. It solves my problem, it works for me, and it’s simple enough.