It is always recommended to secure things that are important so that people with ill intentions cannot gain access. This is true with online accounts but also true with tangible items such as documents and valuables. Inevitably, passwords are forgotten and keys are misplaced. Who can blame us for forgetting a password every now and then? Try counting how many passwords you have between banking, insurance, social media, to access your phone or computer at all … we just have too many passwords to store in our heads. Ever come back from vacation or extended time off and discover you’ve forgotten the password(s) you use at work?
It’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Who among us hasn’t found ourselves without access to our accounts or treasured possessions?
Our team recently had an occasion to need access to the contents of lockbox without a key. A friend recommended the baby gorilla approach, “Bang the corner on the ground” was his advice. It may have worked, but we chose to pick the lock. Our mad skills are not limited to digital.
There are online password managers, keychains, and applications to manage passwords through a computer, but some of us have rolled back the clock about a century and keep passwords and lock combinations written down in a book. Is it the most secure way of managing this information? Probably not. Does it work? Absolutely. The major drawback we’ve found is the person in possession of the book becomes somewhat of a secretary to those who do not keep a book of their own. “Mom, what’s the Netflix password?” You get my drift.
In 2021 we all vow to do a better job of keeping track of keys and managing passwords, but the hardbound book isn’t going away anytime soon. We are big believers in computers making life easier, but sometimes the addition of old school methods keeps new technology working for us. We see that as a good thing.