Putting all arguments of ergonomics aside, just take a look at the top row of your keyboard and notice how all of the letters for the word "TYPEWRITER" are up there. That's how dated your keyboard layout is. One part solution to a long gone problem and one part sales gimmick.
Somewhere around one-hundred years before the Epoch Date, typists became quite efficient simply using two rows of keys from A-N and O-Z. So efficient, in fact, that they would commonly cause jams with frequently used pairs. In the 1870's, Remington entered the scene and began gradually developing the layout used by a majority of us today.
Now, you can hardly shop for a desk without finding some mention of ergonomics. So we buy the desk -- a glorified piece of wood -- and place a keyboard with an archaic layout on it. QWERTY isn't for humans, it's a workaround for mechanical bars which are far removed from the mechanical keyboards of today.
We're long overdue for reconsidering the dominant keyboard layout of today. We could easily forgive the first 60 years of the 1900's if we wanted to. But there really is no excuse. By 1893, the Blickensderfer typewriter was unveiled to the public with the keys "DHIATENSOR" positioned on the home-row. QWERTY was still an option, but consumers were made to sign a statement acknowledging that they were purchasing an inferior product.
The most commonly known alternative to QWERTY, "Dvorak" was introduced as early as 1932 and patented by 1936. Still yet, nearly 100 years later, nothing has really put a dent in QWERTY's market dominance.
Alternatives
Ranked by adoption numbers, Dvorak still has the majority of the minority due. This popularity is largely owed to old-school.
Next up would be the Colemak layout which was introduced in 2006 and is supported "out of the box" by almost every major operating system. Compared with QWERTY, 17 keys have changed locations. Cut/copy/paste (x/c/v) maintain the same positions, as do the comma and period keys. The colon is shifted up to the top row so that your home row is fully populated by alpha keys.
Barely escaping the realm of niche layouts, we have Workman being introduced in 2010. It's supported out of the box in Linux/X11 and is easily installed on other common OS's.
Beyond those, you'll find hobbyist keyboard layouts such as: Norman, Asset, and Engram. Finally, you'll descend into absolute niche layouts such as the Neo layout.
Transitioning
This is the "gotcha". Your transition must be deliberate and practiced. Your typing speed will reduce temporarily and in all honesty, it won't be comfortable. The first time you're forced to use QWERTY again, it won't quite be like riding a bike--for a while, at least.
You can't simply pluck the keys out of most laptops and rearrange them for visual reference. If you already primarily use a mechanical keyboard, your life will be simpler. If your mechanical keyboard can truly be programmed, even better.
My Experience
I began transitioning around 2018 while I was in a startup-themed "Skunkworks" organization. I was working long hours and typing A LOT on a laptop keyboard. I really began to question my T-Rex pose and attributed it directly to the constant pain I was feeling in my wrists and fingers.
By this time, I had been using QWERTY for more than 20 years and thanks to an IT teacher's persistence, I had been using it "appropriately" for about 13 of those years. Frankly, I disagree with forcing students to "home" on QWERTY... "floating" is definitely going to lead to less injury. I digress, I hold no resentment to the teacher who forced me to "home" because now I rarely leave it.
It was hard to ignore the popularity of split keyboards, Microsoft and Logitech both had popular ones on the market. But I was acutely aware of the fact that, despite being trained, my left index finger still reaches for the "Y" key--present tense because I'm using my laptop with a QWERTY layout in the moments of typing this paragraph and notice that the left index even reaches for the "h" key about half of the time.
Long story short(er), I can't solder. So I decided on the Ergodox EZ by ZSA; it's a split keyboard, columnar instead of staggered, and programmable. The last part was important because I had decided the Workman layout was for me and I didn't want to worry about whether the computer I was plugging into could support it or not; all of the logic is at the hardware layer. The QMK Firmware also offered to solve a handful (hah) of other problems: home-row modifiers, layering, macros, Hyper/Meh modifiers, and quite a lot more than I've even scraped the surface of.
Timelines
While waiting for my order to arrive, I spent evenings using The Typing Cat, which allows you to "emulate" alternative layouts. My fingers rebelled against me for a week or more.
Within a month, I could barely use QWERTY and my typing speed with Workman was about 25-35 WPM--abysmal, in my opinion. I could do fine while coding, but I'd just about get up and walk across the office before trying to engage in a conversation over Teams or Slack.
After the first month, I became quite comfortable with my choices. The new keyboard was fantastic, my thumbs were in charge of Enter, Tab, Space, Backspace, and layer changing. All modifiers were on the home row (mostly) and my left pinkie retained the traditional Shift-key location.
For some period of time, texting was mildly uncomfortable. But to this day, I haven't found a suitable keyboard app on Android or iOS which is worth the trouble for having Workman available there.
Within the second or third month, I had to visit a client site and my only option was to use their keyboards. It surely seemed like the expert they knew a year before must have had a seizure--It's not a laughing matter but I don't know how else to describe it.
Finally, around three to four months, I just needed to look at the keyboard I was using, take a deep breath, and I could use either layout comfortably. By now, it's all muscle memory; QWERTY works just fine for recliner typing and nicely reminds me why I switched.
At the end of the day, my keyboard layouts resemble the layering theories shown in the Neo layout. But the home layer is Workman.
Your Experience
Whether you turn this into a hobby as I have or simply reconfigure your OS to use an alternative layout, you absolutely should invest the time in yourself. I probably don't know you and it won't benefit me at all if you change layouts. But it will help you a lot.
If pure statistics are your driving factor, I encourage you to explore the website describing the Workman layout. It does a great job of highlighting the scores of the four main layouts I talked about here.
I know of people who have learned multiple and can likely switch between at least three different layouts, but I recommend researching first, deciding on one, and sticking with it until you're good and comfortable with it.
If you find yourself down the QMK rabbit hole, it used to be a lot easier to find inspiration. But due to the number of PRs and total size of the firmware repository, they've adopted a "user space" approach. Take a look a Drashna's Userspace for a very advanced users setup. Follow the firmware documentation if you want to start building your own
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