I Spy, With My Little Eye, Your Password

Dear Geralin,

My husband and I are both fairly organized, but our third child is going to be born shortly and we know we’ll be overwhelmed soon. One area where we are not so organized is keeping track of all our passwords. Do you have any tips for keeping our passwords organized? The less tech-y the solution, the better.

Thanks,

Laura

Dear Laura,

Congrats on baby number three! When the kids in the family outnumber the adults, it’s time to organize as many little things as possible. Getting a grip on your passwords is certainly a manageable task and will probably take less time than putting together a new crib!

I use a low-tech solution myself to keep my family’s passwords organized. It’s the Internet Password Organizer™, a book designed by a guy and his wife right here in North Carolina! How’s that for supporting a local business? The Internet Password Organizer™ acts very much like an address book, which makes it easy and straightforward to use, inexpensive and very low-tech. The book allows me to access:

1) Unique passwords for each site I visit.

2) Complicated passwords, that is, those that are more difficult to hack. Having these in a book means I don’t have to remember them or know them by heart.

3) An up-to-date and accurate physical backup of all my passwords.

The unique design of the Internet Password Organizer™ is just what the doctor ordered. Like an address book, it has an alphabetized tabbed interface to reference the entries. A simple notebook just doesn’t cut it when you have scores of passwords. Fumbling through pages at random to find the proper log-in credentials can be frustrating to say the least. With this book, you can easily access a specific password.

You’ll need to determine a safe place to keep your Internet Password Organizer™. It must be where you can find it quickly when you need to add or retrieve an entry but also where it is secure. Write in pencil so you can easily update passwords as needed. And always enter new passwords or changes immediately into your book. I share my book with my husband, which means that if something were to happen to either of us, the other can access all accounts as needed.

An added bonus is that the creator of the Internet Password Organizer™ provides a list of the many storage options – along with the pros and cons of each – that are available to you when it comes to password management. You may find another method more suitable for you, or a combination of different methods. Go to: http://www.internetpasswordorganizer.com/FAQ.html#PasswordStorageMethods

If you’d like to purchase an Internet Password Organizer™, go to the Google Checkout at: (http://www.internetpasswordorganizer.com/). If you’d like to save 20% (and who wouldn’t?), use the Coupon Code: Metro. Note: if you buy two or more the shipping is free!

Having a centralized location to store passwords, and the ability to locate them quickly, will improve your work efficiency and save you time! Laura, you are going to need all the time-saving help you can get once your new baby arrives!