How To Stop Forgetting Your Passwords? 3 Ways To Aid Your Memory!
We all want to remember our passwords without the worry of comprising them. Clearly, writing them down on a notepad isn’t the safest option out there, and our memories aren’t our best friends either.
While we may have a goldfish’s attention span, there must be better alternatives. We need to aid our memory in remembering passwords. As we need strong passwords everywhere, we also need strong mechanisms to remember those passwords.
No one likes to waste their time trying to hit the ‘forgot password’ option, yet a vast majority of us do it anyway. ExpressVPN’s report on passwords shows us that a whopping 52% of people have reported that they have reset their password at least once a month.
That number fluctuates from country to country, with Germany having the lowest number of people who forget their passwords. According to the report and the countries participating in the study, only 35% of the people reported a dilemma with remembering their passwords. So, Germans aren’t good at just making awesome cars; they have good memories too!
What To Do When You Forget Your Password?
We know most people just trigger the ‘forgot password’ option and set a new password, but not everyone is tech-savvy. Some may not know what to do in such a scenario and may end up scared and freaked out at the sudden loss of access to their account. More so if it’s their banking account in question.
The same report also revealed a startling revelation. 76% of the people surveyed in the US reported that they chose to guess their password multiple times and ended up being locked out of their accounts. That’s an insane number of people not getting instant access to their accounts!
Out of those surveyed, 10% of the people revealed that they sought the help of a friend, while 16% looked for help from their family. Another 21% just straight away went looking for customer support. We’re guessing there were no friends or family around for them.
So what do you do in such a scenario? Surely there is nothing more frustrating than losing access to your accounts when you need them. The only thing we can think of remotely more frustrating than this is slow internet. After all, slow internet is worse than no internet.
Hitting the ‘forgot password’ button is what most people do and the only way out. But if you can avoid reaching that point, why not do that instead, right? So let’s see some tips and tricks that might help us to stop forgetting our passwords!
How To Stop Forgetting Your Passwords And 3 Simple Ways That Can Help
Keeping passwords like QWERTY or 123456 isn’t an option, which is why we have a few suggestions that might help you! If you’re ever making a new account from now on, keep these tips in mind moving forward!
1. Use A Mnemonic To Remember Your Password
If you have ever been a student, you would know the power of mnemonics. When abbreviations or complicated long lists of words are given meanings, it’s easier to remember. Basically, mnemonics would work to give context to random information.
You can use mnemonics to remember passwords as well. You can use long sentences and phrases that are easier to remember and only use the first alphabet to set as your password. If this seems too complicated to understand, don’t worry. It’s not. Let us explain.
Take the example of the phrase – I Am A Young Man With Lots Of Hopes And Dreams In Life! This phrase is easy to remember, right? Now, take the first alphabet of each word and use it as a password. Therefore, your new password can be – iaaymwlohadil. This random phrase can increase your account security many folds!
According to ITPRO, using random phrases, as compared to common phrases like 12345, etc., drastically decreases your chances of losing your password in a brute-force attack. So not only is using mnemonics fun and easy, but it’s also a compelling way to secure your account!
2. Take The Help Of A Password Manager
With everything online, you need your passwords at your fingertips. Most experts suggest using a password manager to help if you keep forgetting your passwords.
Password managers are the safest options for securing your account information and passwords. Nowadays, every good password manager uses encryption, which makes it pretty much impregnable. And instead of having to memorize 100 different passwords for your accounts, you can rely on your password manager to do it for you!
3. Create A Sheet With Hints
Lastly, you can also create a sheet with hints about your passwords. A sheet can be offline, or it can be online as well. Creating a password hint sheet is much safer than creating a sheet with your actual passwords in them. That is because online notepads, sheets, or other apps do not have the same level of security as password managers.
Therefore, you can either whip out a notebook, mention the accounts, and put a hint beside it that only you would know. Or do the same thing on an online database like Excel or Google Sheets. Remember to be vague about it and not overshare details since sheets aren’t the most secure.
There is a lot we can do in a battle to remember and not remember passwords. But compromising our security and our accounts isn’t going to be one of them.
