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• How to manage your passwords in the cloud (memorise passwords)

Go ahead and admit it: You've wasted hours of your life resetting passwords.

Worse, you've entrusted entire bank accounts and other sensitive online assets to external password managers. And you know you're putting your entire livelihood and well-being at risk.

Yet ...

You Don't Know How Else To Manage All Your Passwords!

Well, never fear.

It turns out there's a fun and easy way to memorize passwords.

Even better than that, memorizing passwords gives your brain exercise too.

And you know what? Even if you never even try this simple technique, you'll love learning about what you can achieve with the natural abilities of your mind.

So to get started, the first step is to learn a simple memory skill. It lets you associate each of the digits from 0-9 with a sound.

Sounds kind of crazy, but it’s truly the fastest path to memorizing any number - and that’s important because, for proper password security, you will need some kind of number.

Once you master this skill you’re about to learn (should take about 10 minutes), you’ll learn to turn numbers into words. Once that skill is established, you’ll add the ability to remember letters and symbols in a minute and thereafter create a “Memory Palace” for providing a home for all your passwords. You’ll be able to generate new ones from within that Memory Palace too.

The Easiest Rule Of Thumb That Will Improve Your Memory For Passwords

Before we get into the sound number association system that will enhance your memory for passwords, let’s take an important step back:

The most important rule you need to understand how your memory works so you can improve is this:

You learn and remember things through association. In order to remember things, all we need to do is associate information we don't know with familiar things or information we do already know.

It really is that simple.

This Is As Complex As Memorizing A Password Gets

When it comes to getting started with memorizing passwords based on the principle of association you’ve just learned, you’ll want to learn a system of association.

It’s called the Major System (sometimes called the Major Method).

Now, brace yourself. What you’re about to see looks more complex than it is:

0 = s or z (soft c is optional)

1 = d or t

2 = n

3 = m

4 = r

5 = l

6 = ch, j, sh or soft g (as in “George”)

7 = k

8 = f or v

9 = b or p

Literally what you’re doing here is associating each number with a single consonant sound or a small set of possible consonant sounds.

The Most Memorable Snake In The World

When most people get started with learning the Major System , they start with nothing.

Literally ... Zero.

Just think about a 0 for a second and pretend you don't know what it is.

Could you get a picture in your mind of a snoring snake? Or even if you have aphantasia, could you just conceptualize one?

Do it now.

Now imagine that you're going to associate the number zero with this snoring snake. From now on you will always think of this snoring snake whenever you see a zero.

And what that thought or image of the snoring snake should help you recall through the power of association is this:

1. The snake is in the shape of a zero
2. “Snake” starts with the letter “s”
3. The snake is snoring
4. Snoring is often represented by a string of the letter ‘z’, like this Zzzz.

Don’t Worry If This Doesn’t Make Sense Yet!

It’s counterintuitive, a bit strange, and yet the same process that memory specialists have used to memorize thousands of digits for hundreds of years.

And it will all make sense to you soon. Just remember that the basis of all memory is association and you are using a snake to help you remember that zero is associated with the sounds s, z and soft c.

How To Associate All The Numbers With Consonants

To be honest, making the associations is best done when you come up with your own examples. They can be either abstract or concrete.

Let’s take another example: 2 is associated with ‘N.’ There’s no particular reason why this should be the case that we know of, but using the power of association, we can feed our brains memorable reasons.

For example, ‘N’ has two downward strokes:

For some people, this typographical point about the letter ‘N’ will be too abstract.

In that case, you could think about the well-known story of Noah. Noah’s name starts with ‘N’ and he is said to have taken the animals onto his ark two-by-two (i.e. in pairs). The important point is that you take a second to think about how your imagination works. If you’re more conceptual or can picture the letter ‘N’ in your mind as a kind of object built universally from two columns, then you won’t need to think of a more concrete example like Noah to make the association.

To give you one last example, notice how 3 is kind of like a mustache tipped on its side:

You could think of the McDonald’s ‘M’ on its side in the shape of a 3 as an alternative, or come up with your own association.

Again, as a general rule of thumb, the more you create our own associations, the better.

The Ultimate Path To Success With Associations

When making your associations, it’s more than just making them personal. It’s making sure that they’re personal and real to you in a way that matches your learning preferences.

For example, you might be a more visual person. Or perhaps you’re auditory, kinesthetic, or even purely conceptual.

Chances are, you’re already thinking of which learning style you prefer and now you can make your choices in accordance.

Now would be a good time to bookmark this page and create the associations you will use for the rest of the digits 0-9.

But if you’re curious what images I used for all of the digits when first learning the Major System, here they are:

0 = s or z (soft c is optional)

The snoring snake wrapped around Cookie Monster’s neck.

1 = d or t

Each letter has one downward stroke.

2 = n

This letter has two downward strokes.

3 = m

This letter has three downward strokes.

4 = r

This number looks like a reversed letter ‘R’

5 = l

The left hand held out from your body with the thumb sticking out makes the shape of an ‘L’

6 = ch, j, sh or soft g (as in “George”)

For this was an abstract one: David Bowie’s “Ch-ch-ch-changes” and look of his face on the Aladdin Sane album just remind me of a six.

7 = k

If you think about it, isn’t the letter ‘K” just two 7’s tipped on their sides?

8 = f or v

Here I thought of a snowman made of fake snow from my family’s Christmas decorations.

9 = b or p

I thought of a game of 9 pin bowling with a small group that meant a lot to me as a kid - and still does.

All You Need To Do Is Mine Your Memory For Similar Associations From Your Life

If you can complete this simple step, you’ll soon instantly know the sound-association for each single digit.

The next step involves nothing more than making words from the sounds.

But not just any words.

Words that also have personal meaning for you so that your memory benefits from the magic of association.

For example, let’s say you have a password ending in 2017.

Using the Major System, you would instantly see, for example, N-S-D-K.

From that, you could create the word NASDAQ.

This is really great because the NASDAQ is a concept that comes loaded with visual, auditory and conceptual senses. It’s also bright, colorful and has emotions tied to it. Perhaps the movie Wall Street comes to mind, or many other movies like it.

Such associations will make the association even stronger, and you certainly don’t have to stop at just one level of association. You could, for example, think of Wall Street the movie and your own visit to the trading floor if you ever made one.

To take another example, what could the sound-association for 8432 be in your mind?

How about Fire + Man (F-R-M-N).

In my imagination, I would actually see Chuck Norris with a flamethrower setting Johnny Cash (The Man in Black) on fire.

No Matter Words You Create … Make Them Dramatic!

Ultimately, you want to select words that already come packed with theatrical value (like NASDAQ) or a few words that can be made dramatic (like Chuck Norris setting Johnny Cash on fire).

The point is to make them memorable.

And once you know how to do that, password memorization will be easy.

Just imagine starting a new online bank account, for example. If you were given the username 20178432, then all you would need to do is get a picture of the NASDAQ and then Chuck Norris rushing in and incinerating Johnny Cash.

Then, every time you needed to log in, it would be a simple matter of “decoding” those three words back into the username number.

If your password for the account could be chosen, then you can influence the selection of characters and easily see ( as a westbound boomerang, a * as the Northern Star and a ^ as the ear of a cat.

Imagining now that your password for the account is 22^*fs(Gd16, all you need to do is create a “sentence” of pictures.

The Major System tells us that 2 is an N. Two Ns together suggests the word Nun.

So imagine seeing a Nun biting a cat’s ear. A shooting star shoots out of it, turning into a westbound boomerang while God (from the Sistine Chapel, to make the image concrete and specific) throws down a dish.

It’s a silly and ridiculous image, but if you just get started creating them, you’ll soon see how effective these “sentence pictures” are for encoding and then decoding passwords.

And to learn more about how to store these images in a Memory Palace, organize them, create more and get as many passwords into long-term memory as you wish, I recommend that you sign up for my free Memory Improvement Kit.

You’ll get worksheets and four free videos that will walk you through everything in detail. It’s easy, fast and so much fun.

And the best part, in addition to all the passwords you’ll be able to remember, is that your creativity and brain health will improve too. Click here now and tell me where to send you my free Magnetic Memory Method training and we’ll get you started.

Guest blog post by Dr. Anthony Metivier

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