1. Stop bottoming out
A mouse switch fires about a third of the way through its travel. Pushing the button all the way down and letting it all the way up is two thirds wasted motion on every click. The single biggest jump most people get is learning to hover: keep the finger resting on the button, press only until it clicks, release only until it resets. It feels like cheating for about a minute, then it feels normal, and a 5 CPS clicker becomes a 7 CPS clicker without any extra speed in the finger.
The same is true of the spacebar, with a bigger payoff, because the key travels further. On a mechanical keyboard the switch fires at about 2 mm out of 4.
2. Use the finger with the shortest tendon
Index finger for most people. Middle finger for some. The thumb, which people use on trackpads and phones, is slower on a mouse button because it is moving a heavier joint. Try each on the 10 second test; the difference is usually a full click per second and it is not the finger you expected.
3. Relax everything except the finger
Tension in the wrist and forearm shows up in the numbers as a high first second and a collapse after five. The Second half box on the result tells you this directly: -30% means you were straining. A relaxed hand loses a little peak speed and keeps it for the whole run, which is worth more on any test longer than a second.
A good drill: run 30 seconds, and instead of chasing the total, try to keep the per-second bars level. Cadence above 80 with a flat second half is the goal. The speed follows.
4. The 10 second problem
Everyone's 1 second score is higher than their 10 second score, and everyone's 10 is higher than their 60. Part of it is the first hit at time zero, part is fatigue. If you want a number that improves with training, pick 10 seconds and stay with it. One-second bursts improve fast at first and then stop, because they measure how fast the finger can twitch, and that is mostly set by biology.
5. Then, and only then, the hardware
Light switches help. A mouse with a 50 g switch clicks noticeably faster than one with a 70 g switch, and a mouse whose button has short pre-travel helps more than the switch weight. What does not help: a higher polling rate, a "gaming" sensor, RGB, a lighter shell. If you are on a laptop trackpad, any mouse at all is the upgrade, and a cheap one is fine.
6. Techniques, if you want them
Jitter, butterfly and drag clicking each add speed and each cost something: comfort, accuracy, or the life of the switch. They are covered in their own guide. A clean single-finger 8 to 9 CPS with high cadence is a better place to be than a shaky 12 for almost every purpose except a leaderboard.
What a week looks like
Two or three 10 second runs a day, no more. Watch cadence and the second-half number, not the headline. Most people move from 5 to 7 in the first week just from hovering and relaxing, then gain maybe half a click a week after that, then plateau somewhere between 8 and 10. That plateau is where technique starts, if you decide you need it.