Password managers are great tools in theory. But until you get your long list of logins in the password manager, they're mostly useless. Being half-in-half-out is almost worse, just creating more confusion. To start using a password manager, what you need is an easy-to-follow process (and some time).
Here's my step-by-step process for setting somebody up with a fully functional password manager.
If you think you're alone in password struggles, you really, really are not. Here a three real examples of people I've talked to who got across the barrier to using a secure password manager.
If you're reading this newsletter, you probably fall into one of two mindsets when it comes to passwords:
If you're in the second group, skip to the Solutions section to hear about my recommended process for finally getting across that hurdle. Here, I want to take a beat to address the first mentality: why it really is worth being concerned about your passwords.
And it's not about the risk to your money. Or your creditworthiness. Or your identity.
It's just about the inevitable amount of time that results from an incident. Cleaning up a fraudulent incident can require hours on the phone with customer support teams, credit bureaus, and attorneys. In some cases, the effort continues on after the initial cleanup because of extra verification requirements placed on you for regular activities.
What's worse is that often, people discover personal security breaches right when they're trying to get something done. Like they're making a big transaction, or getting a lone, or filing their taxes at the last minute. The time intensity of these breaches tend to compound.
So, the tradeoff between using a password manager and not using one isn't really a matter of whether you choose to put the time into setting it up. It's time invested now to more-likely-than-not avoid a ballooning of hassle down the road—right when you least expect it.
Here's my equation for how time savings and time costs for using a password manager.
While you can insure yourself against many of the financial consequences of cyberattacks, you just can't save yourself on the time loss. Password managers (along with other personal security practices) are the only real insurance policy on your time.
Now that I've made my pitch on why getting your passwords in a password manager is worth your time, let's take a look at how to do that as time-efficiently as possible. I've broken this down into seven steps—each of which is critical.
Step 0, of course, is choosing a password manager. Next week, I'll be rolling out a curated set of product reviews that actually save you time, which will include password manager options, but there are many available—both free and paid. For now, I'll just mention that if you're part of a couple or a family that shares passwords, it may be worth it to pay for a solution that enables that.
These are what I call "password clusters"—anywhere you've stored some passwords. If you have multiple places, you're not alone. I've met couples with up to eight different spots for their passwords, some of which they didn't know about.
Some people forget to check their browser to see if they have inadvertently logged in and saved credentials there. If you use Chrome (on web), for instance, you can access your passwords here.
No matter where you find them, you want to look around and collect them all.
The next step is to save your clusters of log in credentials in a spreadsheet. If you're not a big spreadsheet user, this is probably the start of where you could use a helping hand. I know some people just hate dealing with organizing a spreadsheet, but to import your logins, this is a pretty vital step.
Collecting all your logins into a spreadsheet is also the start of creating a pattern that you'll use to find other logins to import.
As long as you've set up your spreadsheet according to the password manager's requirements, you should be able to export it as a CSV file and upload it into the password manager, creating an initial set of logins in the password manager to work with.
After you import your initial clusters, you'll want to review your spreadsheet and take some time to think, "What am I missing?" Go through your life categorically:
It's important to know that you don't have to remember all the passwords upfront. Just write them down or add them to the spreadsheet as a list of logins to go through in the next step. Remember that the average person has 168 digital accounts they log in to, so don't be surprised if the list is quite long.
Here, I suggest you take an intentional break. Pat yourself on the back for getting this far. But also, don't stop here. It's precisely at this moment that some people stop, and when you have only a percentage of your passwords in a password manager, it can actually be more frustrating to use, not less. You want to reach 75%-95% of your passwords to hit the threshold where it feels like a breeze to use.
This step is the one most people lose momentum on: going through your to-do list of logins and resetting your password with one randomly generated by the password manager. This step is critical for three reasons:
I suggest taking your list in chunks, and even intentionally doing each chunk on different devices to get a feel for how it works in different browser setups and when interacting with mobile apps. Maybe you divide the list into thirds and do some on your laptop in your main browser, some on your phone, and some on a tablet or in a backup web browser on your computer.
Depending on the password manager you're using, you may need to do more or less setup to ensure it's configured for easy use on all browsers or platforms. Password managers that aren't built into an operating system or browser (i.e., not made by Google, Apple, or Microsoft) may be fully featured but require some setup. Here are a few key steps:
Last, but not least, many people need to get used to saving their passwords using a password manager. Because web applications are built in many different ways, you'll find that a password manager can't recognize login form fields universally to save passwords automatically. Sometimes, you'll need to copy and paste your password from the browser into the tool.
I like to remind people that a password manager is just storing your credentials, and while many help to auto-complete, they're not foolproof.
Check out these great sources of inspiration and fact for this piece. They're worth a read.
Password managers are great tools in theory. But until you get your long list of logins in the password manager, they're mostly useless. Being half-in-half-out is almost worse, just creating more confusion. To start using a password manager, what you need is an easy-to-follow process (and some time).
Here's my step-by-step process for setting somebody up with a fully functional password manager.
If you think you're alone in password struggles, you really, really are not. Here a three real examples of people I've talked to who got across the barrier to using a secure password manager.
If you're reading this newsletter, you probably fall into one of two mindsets when it comes to passwords:
If you're in the second group, skip to the Solutions section to hear about my recommended process for finally getting across that hurdle. Here, I want to take a beat to address the first mentality: why it really is worth being concerned about your passwords.
And it's not about the risk to your money. Or your creditworthiness. Or your identity.
It's just about the inevitable amount of time that results from an incident. Cleaning up a fraudulent incident can require hours on the phone with customer support teams, credit bureaus, and attorneys. In some cases, the effort continues on after the initial cleanup because of extra verification requirements placed on you for regular activities.
What's worse is that often, people discover personal security breaches right when they're trying to get something done. Like they're making a big transaction, or getting a lone, or filing their taxes at the last minute. The time intensity of these breaches tend to compound.
So, the tradeoff between using a password manager and not using one isn't really a matter of whether you choose to put the time into setting it up. It's time invested now to more-likely-than-not avoid a ballooning of hassle down the road—right when you least expect it.
Here's my equation for how time savings and time costs for using a password manager.
While you can insure yourself against many of the financial consequences of cyberattacks, you just can't save yourself on the time loss. Password managers (along with other personal security practices) are the only real insurance policy on your time.
Now that I've made my pitch on why getting your passwords in a password manager is worth your time, let's take a look at how to do that as time-efficiently as possible. I've broken this down into seven steps—each of which is critical.
Step 0, of course, is choosing a password manager. Next week, I'll be rolling out a curated set of product reviews that actually save you time, which will include password manager options, but there are many available—both free and paid. For now, I'll just mention that if you're part of a couple or a family that shares passwords, it may be worth it to pay for a solution that enables that.
These are what I call "password clusters"—anywhere you've stored some passwords. If you have multiple places, you're not alone. I've met couples with up to eight different spots for their passwords, some of which they didn't know about.
Some people forget to check their browser to see if they have inadvertently logged in and saved credentials there. If you use Chrome (on web), for instance, you can access your passwords here.
No matter where you find them, you want to look around and collect them all.
The next step is to save your clusters of log in credentials in a spreadsheet. If you're not a big spreadsheet user, this is probably the start of where you could use a helping hand. I know some people just hate dealing with organizing a spreadsheet, but to import your logins, this is a pretty vital step.
Collecting all your logins into a spreadsheet is also the start of creating a pattern that you'll use to find other logins to import.
As long as you've set up your spreadsheet according to the password manager's requirements, you should be able to export it as a CSV file and upload it into the password manager, creating an initial set of logins in the password manager to work with.
After you import your initial clusters, you'll want to review your spreadsheet and take some time to think, "What am I missing?" Go through your life categorically:
It's important to know that you don't have to remember all the passwords upfront. Just write them down or add them to the spreadsheet as a list of logins to go through in the next step. Remember that the average person has 168 digital accounts they log in to, so don't be surprised if the list is quite long.
Here, I suggest you take an intentional break. Pat yourself on the back for getting this far. But also, don't stop here. It's precisely at this moment that some people stop, and when you have only a percentage of your passwords in a password manager, it can actually be more frustrating to use, not less. You want to reach 75%-95% of your passwords to hit the threshold where it feels like a breeze to use.
This step is the one most people lose momentum on: going through your to-do list of logins and resetting your password with one randomly generated by the password manager. This step is critical for three reasons:
I suggest taking your list in chunks, and even intentionally doing each chunk on different devices to get a feel for how it works in different browser setups and when interacting with mobile apps. Maybe you divide the list into thirds and do some on your laptop in your main browser, some on your phone, and some on a tablet or in a backup web browser on your computer.
Depending on the password manager you're using, you may need to do more or less setup to ensure it's configured for easy use on all browsers or platforms. Password managers that aren't built into an operating system or browser (i.e., not made by Google, Apple, or Microsoft) may be fully featured but require some setup. Here are a few key steps:
Last, but not least, many people need to get used to saving their passwords using a password manager. Because web applications are built in many different ways, you'll find that a password manager can't recognize login form fields universally to save passwords automatically. Sometimes, you'll need to copy and paste your password from the browser into the tool.
I like to remind people that a password manager is just storing your credentials, and while many help to auto-complete, they're not foolproof.
Check out these great sources of inspiration and fact for this piece. They're worth a read.
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