Had to pick between a password manager and a notebook for keeping track of logins

A few months back I was at a coffee shop in Austin and realized I had maybe 30 different accounts floating around in my head. I kept forgetting passwords and doing the reset dance every single time. So I had this choice: either trust a password manager app or just write everything down in a physical notebook. I went with the notebook at first because I thought no hacker can break into a piece of paper, right? But after a week of flipping through pages and losing it under my couch cushion twice, I gave up. I switched to a free password manager on my phone and now I use it for everything. The notebook thing felt safer but honestly it was way less practical for day to day stuff. Has anyone else wrestled with this same choice and found a middle ground?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_susan1mo ago

30 accounts seems low honestly. I'm sitting at 87 in my manager right now and that's just personal stuff. What made you finally trust the app enough to put all your banking and email passwords in there?

rileyb6129d ago

Ha, 87 makes me feel better about my 30. Still not touching banking though.

mitchell.lee23d ago

You ever notice how we used to keep everything in our heads or on sticky notes taped to our monitors? That's where I was until last year. What finally did it for me was realizing I was ALREADY trusting way more risky stuff like typing passwords into public WiFi at coffee shops. The app at least has encryption and I can lock it behind my face scan. It's like how we all just gave up and started letting our phones track our location 24/7 because the convenience was worth more than the privacy headache.