Passwords! My God, don’t you need a frigging shitload of them these days? I have a love/hate relationship with Digg, I keep forgetting the password I have there (it’s because they don’t allow special characters like ? @ ! &), forcing me to go through the annoying process of resetting it, confirming that via email, rethinking a new password, working my way through all the errors caused by special characters, compromising me in a password that I’m bound to forget again.

I was listing the passwords I use online, and it was plain scary. The list is enormous, and I haven’t even finished it yet (scroll down for the list). Argh!

A lot of them share passwords, because my brain capacity is limited (or I’m just too lazy to have different ones for each site). Most of them I use only once in a while, but some of them I use daily. And these are where you can put your passwords to work for you. You can turn them into a fun and productive event, rather than an annoying but necessary event.

Passwords you use frequently, should change frequently as well (how annoying is that!?). And they should be strong passwords too, if you care about the content they are protecting (or to satisfy the IT guidelines). This can sometimes be a real challenge, but with these simple tips you can turn them into assets, instead of a nuisance.

List your goals

This is something I’ve used a lot. Whatever goals you have, use them for your passwords. I’ve used passwords like:

• Finish2ndFloor!
• GrowBlogNow
• Get2500RSS

They’re pretty strong passwords, and when you’re typing them you get reminded instantly of what you want to achieve.

Prevent pitfalls of bad habits

When you log into one of your biggest time wasters for instance (IM, gaming, Twitter, Facebook, whatever), remind yourself that it’s a time waster. Use a passwords like:

• OneHourIsEnough (upper and lower case, not too bad)
• RUsure? (special character added, pretty strong)
• 1h=Q2>1h=Q4 (yay, Covey in action with a very strong password)

Learn spelling

Pick a word you have trouble spelling word and use that as a password. The sheer repetition will make sure you’ll never spell it wrong again.
Examples: Definitely - Opthalmology - Massachusetts - Prolificacy

Learn (a couple of words in) a foreign language

It can be fun to add some foreign words to your vocabulary. Want to know how to say beer in 20 langauges? Just look them up and use them as passwords:

• Spanish:Cerveza
• French:Biere (okay, accents are a problem)
• Italian:Birra

Or use the real translation:

• Merde=Damn
• Giornale=Newspaper
• Freizeit=LeisureTime

Extend your vocabulary

Use a new word and it’s meaning as the password. The trick is to find synonyms here, because the dictionary meanings tend to be long.

• Prolificacy=Fruitfulness
• Defiance=Resistance
• Superfluous=Redundant

Use affirmations

Affirmations are a popular technique to get you (back) in a productive state, or a harmonious state or whatever state you want to be in. In a lot of self improvement books the use of positive affirmations is advocated, but how often are you going to sit and read them out loud to yourself?

But if you use them as your passwords, you will repeat them often. Some examples:

• I’mFinanciallyFree
• IAm@Peace
• MyBodyVibratesWithEnergy

Have fun!

Admitted, it’s only a microhack. It’s not going to massively change your world, make you more productive, increase your IQ, expand your network or whatever. But it turns passwords into fun, and you might also learn something.

The sites I need passwords for:
So far I have: StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, Facebook, Twitter, Twitterfeed (via OpenID), Reddit, Gaia (former Zaadz), MyBlogLog, WordPress.com, How to be an Original (admin interface), WordPress DIY (admin interface), Feedburner, Joe’s Goals, Flickr, iStockPhoto, several bank accounts (4), Paypal, Neteller, Dutch State Lottery, Gmail (google, thanks for sharing passwords across ALL services!!), Lotus Notes at work, Hosting at Argeweb, Hosting at GoDaddy, Cell phone account at Orange (2), Internet Provider, alumni network of former employer, bol.com, Amazon, Text Link Ads, Linkworth, YouTube, Revver, several online poker accounts (pokerstars, partypoker, and the likes) and counting…

On Sundays I’m looking back on the past week. How did I perform towards my goals? How did my blog do? And how am I keeping up with my productivity habits? 

Blog performance

This week I’ve been writing more than I have in a long time. I did not publish a lot yet, because some posts are not finished yet and others will not appear on this blog. But the creative juices are flowing again, and that’s a great feeling!

The blog statistics are encouraging too. Visitors and subscribers are up, as is the participation level of commenters on the blog. I love that!

Technorati is down again, which means that other bloggers are not posting links on their blogs to How to be an Original. We all like the link love, but it’s not the most important thing out there. Readers come first on my list, so the drop in Technorati Authority doesn’t bother me that much.

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This month How to be an Original turned one year old. A year ago on my birthday I decided to start this blog and hardly a week later I published the first post. Little did I know what I had gotten myself into…

Conception

After a year of trying to earn a buck by playing poker online, I decided to try something else. Playing poker was usually break-even or slightly better, but I lost the fun and it consumed massive amounts of time. It was time for something more constructive, something that delivered more value both to me and to others.

I have always had the feeling that I should start my own business, but apart from a small ‘business’ I had when I was a student I had never really taken steps to make it a reality. On that birthday I decided it was time to actually do something about it.

Next question: How to start your own business in spare time? I needed the income from my day job, so quitting wasn’t an option. I wanted to start a (freelancing) business in training and coaching, but I lacked both the training and experience in doing so (the passion is there though!). And I knew that I needed to put in a LOT of work in developing my ideas.

At the time I had just discovered Guy Kawasaki’s blog only weeks before, and the idea of starting a blog popped in my head. It was perfect for developing my ideas by writing them out, discussing them with readers and for some personal branding as well.
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Photo by dyobmit

Editor’s note: This post is written by Heather Johnson, who writes for Bootstrapper blog.

If you find yourself constantly rushed to finish your day’s work, then you need to start spending your time more wisely. The harsh reality is, you probably have plenty of time to get your work finished. With the following little tips, you will soon be spending that time much more wisely:

1. Maintain a Professional Calendar – Stop scribbling things down on sticky notes and start using a professional calendar. Whether it’s an electronic planner or a bound appointment book, you need to get organized.
2. Stop Overscheduling – Be sure to leave at least a fourth of your day open and free of appointments. You never know what will arise, so give yourself a little wiggle room.
3. Don’t Surf the Net – While you may need to check your email at work or do some other online tasks, steer clear of time-wasting sites. The Internet is one of the biggest drains on work productivity in every office.
4. Socialize Less – It’s both a blessing and a curse when you work with people you enjoy. The more you want to talk with them, the more you fall behind with work. Even if it’s your boss who likes to hang out, politely excuse yourself and stay on task.
5. Learn to Delegate – Are you a control freak at work? Sometimes, it’s okay to let some work go to someone else. In fact, if you are seriously overwhelmed, you must learn to delegate.
6. Be Punctual – Do you routinely slip into work 15 minutes late? Take extended lunch breaks a few days a week? Even if you work at a place that is cool with that, your tardiness could be eating into your schedule more than you realize.
7. Relax – Anxiety causes massive brain drain, which will slow your productivity. If you’re stressed because you’ve fallen behind, then your bad mood will only compound the problem.

By following the above advice, you will quickly start to feel more relaxed and productive at work. This will not only make your life less stressful, it will get you out of the office on time and with a clear conscience.

Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and economics writer, as well as a regular contributor at Business Credit Cards, a site for business credit cards offers. Heather welcomes comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

On Sundays I’m looking back on the past week. How did I perform towards my goals? How did my blog do? And how am I keeping up with my productivity habits? 

Blog performance

Today, one year ago I published my first blog post on How to be an Original (I updated my about page since that post). So officially How to be an Original is a one-year old now. I’ve learned a lot about myself, about blogging, about goal setting and many more topics in that one year. I’m going to publish a post about that this week. For today, I’m just going to publish my standard weekly review. 

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