Recently, I was with my wife at my parents house. The home of tech savvy is absolutely not at the house I grew up in. My mother keeps a 3 ring binder with all of her handwritten notes and instructions. We are on a 2″ binder now, complete with alphabetical tabs, and there are things under almost every letter. This is her “Bible”, and she is petrified of losing it so she hides it. If someone ever stole this… I said “Mom, if someone broke into your house, they’re not looking for the password to your WiFi or your email account.” Haha.

She said “My Netflix doesn’t work.” I had a look, and sure enough, it didn’t. Their TV must have gotten disconnected from their WiFi at some point in the last 2 years. I started to reconnect the TV to WiFi and I asked her what the WiFi password was. She hauled out the 3 ring binder. She opened it to the “P” tab (for passwords), and in the 1940’s cursive handwriting, I found 3 passwords for Spectrum. “Is this your Spectrum password or your WiFi password?” “What?? They’re the same thing?” “Forget it. I’ll try them all.” I got it connected. Then I went to open Netflix and the app was stuck, so after a delete and re-install the app, I had to log in again. “Mom, what’s your Netflix password? I can’t find it in your Passwords section.” “Oh, it’s under N for Netflix.” “Naturally…”

From the other side of the room, my wife says why don’t you have a “Words” file in the Notes app on your phone? “What’s the Notes app?” comes from my right. Forget it Mom… A words file is short for Passwords. I have one in Notability (the app we talked about last week). I have each account and app that I have sorted by type (Business, Home or Personal), and then sorted in alphabetical order in ONE document saved as a note.

There are several nice things about this. First, it’s electronic and on the device that I’m trying to use to log in, so I can copy and paste instead of reading/ remembering/ re-typing. Second, since notability sync’s across all devices, I can have my passwords updated on my MacBook pro and my iPad as well. Third, when I have a new password, I just copy it and paste it over the one that’s already listed in the file. This means ONE username and password for each account or app is listed. You don’t have to remember which one is current or look at the crossed out/ erased ones. And finally, you can print it out if you want a hard copy lying around (in your three ring binder).

If you’re like me, you have 100 passwords. You can create a document with them alphabetically. You can create separate documents for “Business Words”, “Personal Words”, and “Home Words”, consolidate in three sections in one document, or just have one document with everything. However you do it, develop a list that works for you. This is pretty handy if you make it a habit to update and maintain a current list. Give it a try. You might enjoy throwing out your scribbled list!!

Your work, your way.