A password manager for ADHD, when your brain won't hold forty passwords

Most people have one password they've used for years, with a number on the end that goes up every time something makes them change it. There's a better way, and it's a password manager for ADHD brains like ours.

You're not being careless. It's what anyone does when they're asked to remember forty things. For an ADHD brain, forty is about thirty-eight too many.

Why one password is a real risk

When any one of those forty places gets broken into, whoever did it has the key to the other thirty-nine. That's how most people get hurt online. Not by someone clever guessing a password. By someone buying it in a list.

The answer isn't to be cleverer. It's to stop trying to remember them at all.

Let a password manager remember them

A password manager keeps every password for you. You learn one good password, and it looks after the rest. Each one can be long and odd and different, because you'll never type it again.

The kit walks you through Bitwarden. It's free for what you need, and it works on your computer and your phone. If your browser already saves your passwords and that's working for you, keep it. That's a real password manager too, and much safer than your memory.

The one job I never hand over

My assistant helps me with nearly everything. It drafts, sorts, reminds and checks. But I type my own passwords. Always.

Assistive, not directive. Some things stay with you, and the keys to your life are one of them.

What to do next

Pick the one account that would hurt most to lose. Usually it's your email, because it can reset everything else. Give it a new, long password that you use nowhere else, and save it in a password manager today.

This is my own experience, not a doctor's advice. The kit has a half-hour guide to getting your accounts safe, one step at a time.