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…
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You can be an Original too!
Tina Russell
Mon 2008.04.14
I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
Tina Russell
Sylver
Mon 2008.04.14
I use only one password, the password to the password maker plugin in firefox
If I need a password for a site, I just generate it
Lodewijk
Mon 2008.04.14
@Tina Russell: Thanks for the comment, it got stuck in the moderation queue, my Akismet spam protection is doing strange stuff lately. Welcome anyway, glad to have you as an active commenter now
@Sylver: Hmm, that sounds interesting. I’m definitely going to check it out. But it leaves me with enough passwords that I either don’t trust to a plugin, or that need to be used outside of firefox. Thanks for the tip!
Rolf F. Katzenberger
Mon 2008.04.14
Tried all of them and none got me into your facebook account!
Apart from that: excellent idea, I would never have thought of this.
For passwords, I just use Firefox’s normal password store. Most annoyingly, some JavaScript-ed sites make it impossible to use it. :-/
Rolf F. Katzenberger’s last blog post..Schicksal oder freie Entscheidung? Zitatequadrat No. 1
Lodewijk
Mon 2008.04.14
Yep Rolf, I did make sure that the examples were no longer in use online
Storing passwords with FF is something I used to do as well. But after my laptop got stolen twice (with stored passwords), I decided against using it. And I read somewhere that storing passwords is best left to a dedicated password manager, instead of FF.
Rolf F. Katzenberger
Mon 2008.04.14
@Lodewijk: I see. That’s why I keep my FF profile on a USB stick which, in turn, is kept on my keyring. Still a risk, but sufficient for me.
Andre Kibbe
Mon 2008.04.14
I’ve committed my passwords to memory, but for backup I keep them in a text file I’ve zipped with 7-Zip. When 7-Zip gives you the option of assigning a password that needs to be entered when uncompressing the file. I use a strong password (a nonsense sequence of numbers and upper- and lowercase letters) to unlock this file, which is only stored in my head. In the unlikely event that I forget it, I’ll probably still have all the passwords memorized.
Andre Kibbe’s last blog post..Eliminate the Time Stretchers in Your Head
Lodewijk
Tue 2008.04.15
@Rolf: Sounds like a good solution as long as you keep an eye on your USB drive. I lost one of those too once.
@Andre: I had never heard of 7-zip, just looked into it and it looks like a nice utility. Thanks for the tip!
Wendi Kelly
Tue 2008.04.15
now that was an original post! how fun and what a good idea!
I have a horrible time remembering passwords. This will be a big help to me actually.
The spelling part though…I don’t know…I’d probably never spell it the same way twice!
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post..Amazing Mountains
Lodewijk
Tue 2008.04.15
@Wendi: Yeah, you have to at least spell them right twice in a row when you change your password. But if that is a challenge, then exercising that particular word is probably a good idea
Just be sure to spell it right, otherwise you’re toast!
Ludwik C. Siadlak
Wed 2008.04.16
Great post Lodewijk! (Stumbled and delicioused!)
I usually prompt my students to add to their password some changeable patter - e.g if “ThisIsMySecretPa$$” stands for password there’s nothing simpler to expand pass to “ThisIsMySecretPa$$-StumbleUpon” if service is vital for them.
Ludwik C. Siadlak’s last blog post..Save Up to 24% on Skype Services Using One Simple Trick
Lodewijk
Wed 2008.04.16
Hi Ludwik.
That’s also an easy trick to remember your passwords. But it can get out of synch when one of the service you use forces you to change passwords (like my employer does).
Self Improvement and Personal Development Link Love, Volume 32 http://blog.lodewijkvdb.com/2008/04/tweak-your-passwords-to-benefit-from-them.html http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/coincidences-synchronicity-serendipity/trackback/ http://www.improvedlife.ca
Sat 2008.04.19
[…] those of us who use passwords all the time (and who doesn't these days?), Lodewijk's post Tweak your passwords to benefit from them lists some truly original ways to not just remember passwords, but to actually put them to good […]