typos we know how to spell

L.A. Times front page

This is something I don't understand and I need to know if it's just me or if it happens to other people. I make typos as I type. Normally it's just the error of trying to type as fast as my brain is going - my hands can never hope to keep up. That's no big deal - spellchecker gets those. But there are words that sound the same but are spelled differently, they're the tricky ones and it's their spelling that messes me up. Whenever I see an email or article or anything where the author is using the wrong word I cringe. I mean, they are completely different words, right? Couldn't be more obvious. I've never once been unsure about when to use which word.

But then I type something and go back to read it and the wrong word is their (I did that one on purpose just to prove my point). When I was thinking, and typing, the word there was in my head. But the word their comes out of my fingers. Again, I have no confusion over the correct meaning and use of the word. My hands just type the wrong thing. It's like they are dictating my thoughts but have no connection to the brain - they just type out what they hear. But shouldn't my hands know better than that? If I'm thinking of the word 'there', shouldn't that be what they type? Why do my hands want to screw me up like that? And it's not just there/they're/their, it's also its/it's, and two/too/to too. All of those sound alike words.

So I end up having to go through my writings (even my emails and blog posts) to make sure I didn't type the wrong word and make myself look like an idiot. After all, I'm trying to claim to be a writer here. So am I the only one who has this particular typo problem? And how do I get my hands to stop typing phonetically and just do what I'm thinking? Any help wood bee appreciated.