TenthOfMarch.com

I used to have two or three username-password combinations in the past. I will be using these username and password for all of the online services that I sign up to — web based email service, online games, forums, etc. However, I make it a rule to use a different set of password for online banking and other important services.

When I started blogging, I had to create more accounts from the various services that I signed up to. Being the paranoid freak that I am, I made an effort to use different sets of username and password combination for each and every account that I signed up to. Currently, I am using more than 10 different sets of username and passwords. So, just how in the world am I able to remember all of them?

At first, I remember these username and passwords by writing them down on a few pieces of papers. I still keep them now, in case I forgotten and needed to recover it.

Note: Do not leave your username and passwords written on a piece of paper in your office or house where outsiders may be able to view it. I live with my family so it is probably safe

Anyway, I used to read the username and passwords needed from the paper when I first started. However, after a few weeks of using them, I have unconsciously memorized most of them. So, how exactly am I able to memorize over 10 different sets of username and passwords?

I realized that I do not remember them “visually”. If I am requested to write them down on a piece of paper, I may not be able to do it. In fact, a few days ago I was trying to login to my blog admin but failed because I “forgotten” my password! At that time, I was holding a piece of bread while munching on it and typing with the other hand. That is when I realized I “remember” my passwords through something that I will just refer to as “feel-and-type”.

I am a touch typist; therefore I feel when I type, instead of looking at what keys that I am hitting. It is like how some people remember phone numbers. When you ask them to write it or say it out, they may find difficulty in doing so. That’s when you see them trying to imagine pressing the telephone key pads in their heads. You may even notice some of them moving their fingers while “pressing an invisible keypad” in the air.

I later “recovered” my password by relaxing for a minute and resume to login typing with both hands like how I was used to. As if my fingers have their own brain, the password was typed on screen as usual.

Strange but true.