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003: Managing passwords and form filling data
874 Plays6 years ago
This episode covers two more important foundation elements for a life admin system: having a password manager and collating data frequently used when filling out forms.
Mia and Dinah discuss how many passwords they need to manage life admin, and how difficult it is to have a fail-proof and secure system to store them all. They also consider how many forms they need to fill out with the same data over and over again. Mia admits to having a password book which put her at risk of identity theft.
They talk about the benefits of password managers, which can generate strong passwords for new accounts, store passwords securely, and autofill login forms with one master password. They operate on your computer as a browser extension and an app on your smart phone.
They go through how they approached choosing and setting up a password manager. They also outline how valuable the secure document storage and form filling functions of the apps are.
The benefits of a password manager include:
- Ability to generate and store strong passwords
- Eliminating the need to remember passwords
- Allowing you to easily access account passwords to allow you to complete your life admin wherever you are
- Ability to store form filling data, including credit card details, making online form filling much faster and simpler.
LIFE ADMIN HIGHS OF THE WEEK
- Dinah talks about how easy it was to buy tennis tickets quickly and easily with convenient access to her shared calendar and passwords on her phone – allowing a purchase of the tickets to happen within 5 minutes during a train ride.
- Mia talks about how she cleared out the deep clutter of her recipe folder, removing all useless and distracting things so can enjoy using the useful recipes that remain.
LIFE ADMIN LOW OF THE WEEK
- Dinah talks about how she had changed credit cards to maximise her frequent flyer points but has found that the online app is so cumbersome that it makes managing the account too difficult and not worth the extra points.
POWER TOOL
- Gretchin Rubin’s quiz on The Four Tendencies – Helps give you better insight into how to change and maintain new habits, by understanding how you respond to the inner and outer expectations placed on you.
RESOURCES
Last Pass password manager
Keeper password manager
Nicole Avery’s family productivity and organisation blog - Planning with Kids
Gretchin Rubin’s book on The Four Tendencies
SHARE
Please head to the Life Admin Life Hacks Facebook page to connect with listeners and share your thoughts, questions or suggestions.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money and improve your household harmony. I'm Diana Roe Roberts, a commercial and finance executive. And I'm Mia Northrop, a user experience designer, researcher and writer.
Focus on Life Admin Systems
00:00:24
Speaker
This episode will talk about another one of the foundations to establishing a great life admin system, passwords and form filling.
Challenges with Passwords and Forms
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. Even in a world of face unlocking and fingerprint scanning, we still haven't escaped the password just yet. There's still a necessity and they're still annoying to remember. And it's amazing how many you have in the world of Life Admin.
00:00:53
Speaker
And every other day, I'm sure listeners find themselves filling out a form online, either credit cards, personal information for themselves or their family members when you're registering for something, buying something or inquiring about something.
00:01:08
Speaker
I don't know how many times in the past I've gone to do something like change the payment details or enroll a child in a tennis lesson and the password that I thought I knew was wrong and then I had to go through that tedious process of password resetting. Often just that message of incorrect password reset now, it's enough to stop me on my tracks.
00:01:32
Speaker
And often I visit websites and I go to register and it's like, oh, you've already got a password. And I'm like, when? From when? I don't even remember visiting the site before. Or my trusty password that I try to outfit, you know, everything pretty much. It's for some reason that website will have
00:01:52
Speaker
want eight characters and you could have an uppercase and a lowercase and a special character and you know some weird combination and it's impossible to remember them all and as someone who's worked in digital for 15 years I'm very ashamed to admit that I have a little password manager book.
00:02:08
Speaker
But that's not best practice. That's pretty much asking someone to steal my identity. So we've investigated what password manager solutions are out there.
Understanding Password Managers
00:02:19
Speaker
Essentially, for those who haven't ventured into this space, a password manager is an app that automatically creates strong passwords for you. So you don't have to worry about creating a reliable password every time you open a new account. And it also stores all your existing passwords in a single vault
00:02:37
Speaker
And you access all of this by having one master password. So this app usually sits as a browser extension, so it might sit within Chrome or Explorer or Safari. You hit a website that's asking you to log in. You will log in to your password manager, and then it will automatically populate every other website you visit from then on with your existing password, or it will create new passwords for you and store them.
00:03:04
Speaker
And the bonus is that they also store credit card information, plus your personal details like your name and your address and your telephone number. So it automatically fills out forms for you, which is just a beautiful thing because you really don't realize how many forms you hit in a web session until you've got something automatically filling out these things for you.
00:03:26
Speaker
So having being able to access all of your passwords wherever and whenever you want is really critical to being able to do your life admin in the most efficient way possible. So we think it's an important foundation of the system. So I know you love the fact that you can access all your accounts on the go and also the fact that these password managers work across your computer, your phone, your tablet, multiple devices. So it really does streamline things.
00:03:54
Speaker
For me, it's great that I can access my passwords on my phone, on my home computer and also at work so that I can really do something whenever I've got a chance to do it without needing to reset passwords again. The at work scenario is a really handy one. So Diana, there's lots of password managers out there. How did you go about finding the right one for you?
Choosing the Right Password Manager
00:04:19
Speaker
I did do quite a bit of research on the various alternatives, spoke to a few people, and I looked at a lot of online reviews. I wanted to be able to make sure that I could get the passwords easily on any device, but I also wanted to have the form filling, but also the secure vault function. I was concerned about having some of the document storage in Google Drive, so I wanted to be able to have a secure vault as well.
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah. And I guess the password manager makes it more secure because you've got essentially two step encryption. You've got the fact that you have this master password. Then you have extra passwords for the websites. And I know on my, the password manager that I'm using, I have to do a touch ID on my phone to actually get into it as well.
00:05:06
Speaker
As Mia mentioned before, there are free alternatives often embedded into Windows or into Chrome or into sort of Mac software, but I really think it's worth the money to pay for a more seamless service between devices and also to bring the security that multi-factor authentication brings. So the password manager that I chose was LastPass, and I've gone for the premium version which allows that multi-factor authentication.
00:05:33
Speaker
I tried the password tools that come native with the Mac, but I actually couldn't just, I couldn't work out how to use it. It wasn't clear to me when it was saving passwords or where the actual vault was or how they were being authenticated. So I trialed keeper.
00:05:49
Speaker
that one seems to play nicely with Mac and iPhone. And similarly, I started with a free trial because I was a little bit, I didn't really get how they worked. So I thought I'll do a free trial first and just try it on my computer. And it was actually very user friendly. It generates these strong passwords when I hit a new site.
00:06:10
Speaker
It automatically suggests what email I would like to use for my registration email, and then it will make a password, and then it will store the passwords for current sites. So whenever I hit a website where I've already got a login, it says, do you want to save this to Kepa? I'm like, yes, please.
00:06:25
Speaker
I also put in my credit card data and personal information so I can fill out all those forms. And yeah, with that vault section, I did put in my driver's license, Medicare passport, just copies of those documents because that is a bit more secure than perhaps Google Drive.
00:06:44
Speaker
And I am gradually getting rid of that little moleskin book I have with my passwords that I should burn, burn and bury. Gosh. So the password manager is $2.50 per month if you want to pay for a service where you can use it across your devices.
00:07:02
Speaker
And given, I thought, you know, I hate paying for apps. I'm a cheapskate. I hate paying for anything online. But, you know, if I'm hitting a website once a day and having to log in or create a new password, then what's the maths on that? It's like, I don't know, eight cents a day for this to be completely automated and seamless. And I think eight cents a day for anything is pretty worthwhile. I should have done this long ago. So did it take you long to set up?
00:07:31
Speaker
Well, I also tried the free trial and I guess here's a good tip for you, is that as the free trial gets closer and closer to expiring, they offer you better and better deals for the subscription. So yeah, so don't sign up too soon, let that free trial go all the way through. In fact, I think I let mine lapse and they were like, you want 20% off? I'm like, yeah, I do, thanks.
00:08:00
Speaker
So I started setting it all up on my PC and the same, but I actually went through and added passwords that were already saved into my PC. So in both Windows and in Chrome, there's different ways of finding the passwords that you've inadvertently or intentionally saved within there, as well as on your iPhone. So once I'd populated all of those, which was already about 30 passwords,
00:08:27
Speaker
It was immediately useful so I could already start to use it. And then I set up the rest of it as I went paperless.
00:08:36
Speaker
So as I went through each category, so for example, the phone bill, I logged into the account, reset the password if necessary and made sure it was saved into last pass. And so therefore I could make the decision about whether I actually needed to keep statements or whether just actually having confident access to the online account that the provider gives you is actually enough.
00:09:01
Speaker
yeah that is it's actually some good account hygiene because when I went through my little moleskin book so the way I approached it was I sat down and got my moleskin book and just went through from Asia I don't know where I got to P
00:09:16
Speaker
and just went through account by account, logged in, cleaned up details. But there were so many sites where I'm like, I don't use this anymore. So I would actually go in there and log in and like delete my account. It was good to sort of clean my internet footprint up a little bit. But essentially I spent a few hours in front of the television going through that password book, loading them into Keeper. And now ongoing as I visit different sites and I'm prompted to add details, it's getting sort of more up to date.
00:09:46
Speaker
I also went through and saved a whole heap of documents into that vault function. So things like birth certificates and citizenship certificates, I've stored in that digital vault. So I also added copies of things that I've kept in hard copy like passports and driver's licenses. So if my wallet's ever stolen, I'll have easy access to these, which just gives you that added peace of mind. Yeah, brilliant.
00:10:12
Speaker
So in summary, why you should invest in a password manager, you're going to get strong passwords and get a variety of passwords, which makes better security.
Efficiency Gains with Password Managers
00:10:22
Speaker
So essentially it's harder for hackers to crack, reduces the risk of hackers misusing your personal information. It eliminates the need for you to remember multiple passwords and ensures that your passwords are stored safely using encryption.
00:10:37
Speaker
It also means you can do life admin wherever and whenever you like, and on any device. And it means you can process things as they come in in just a few minutes. So it eliminates any build up of life admin accumulating on a surface of things you need to do. That sounded revolting. Build up of life admin accumulating on a surface. Like some kind of...
00:11:04
Speaker
It's particles. It's particles of life that have been attached to me. It's the forms that accumulate on the bench or on the fridge.
00:11:13
Speaker
accumulation. So also you might want this form filling data you can easily have at hand. So while there are certain things you can keep in the password manager, I'm sure especially those of us who have kids find themselves filling out forms with the same info again and again and again. Nicole Avery, who has a gorgeous blog called Planning with Kids, publishes a list of
00:11:36
Speaker
sort of child information, fact sheet kind of thing of info that you want to write down once and have either stored hard copy or sort on some kind of digital device of data that you know that you're going to be filling out 20 times here. So this might be things like Medicare numbers, Centrelink numbers, your frequent flyer numbers for your family, the contact details for the kid's doctor's name, phone address,
00:12:03
Speaker
class passport numbers, health insurance numbers, and details for any kids' emergency contacts. So whether you store this information within your password manager or on your cloud storage or on your phone in the notes section or whatever, it is just good data to collect once, have it correct, and have it conveniently accessible wherever you need to be.
00:12:27
Speaker
OK, so I think that wraps us up with our life admin hacks around password management and form filling data. Diana, do you have a life admin high of the week? Oh, I do. And it's actually quite related to the password manager. So every year we love going to the tennis, the Australian Open that's on here in Melbourne. I received an email the other day while I was actually on the train.
00:12:49
Speaker
on my way into the city and it said, you've got one week to buy the tickets before it opens to the general public. So the email came into my inbox. I could immediately check my calendar that I've already set up. I used the password manager that I had set up on my phone to log into the ticketing account. I bought my Australian open tickets.
00:13:10
Speaker
using the credit card details that I'd also saved into my last past form fill and so I added them to the digital wallet so the tickets are there on my phone ready to go when we want to go to the tennis and I saved the item into my calendar so the whole thing was done in five minutes. I received the email, I processed it and it was gone while I was sitting on the train and would have otherwise been mindlessly
00:13:34
Speaker
scrolling Facebook or doing something as meaningless as that. So it felt great that I was able to achieve that life admin task so quickly and effortlessly. And I can just imagine that you deleted that email like inbox zero. Boom. Look at that. It felt amazing.
00:13:53
Speaker
And what about you, Mia? Do you have a life admin home this week? Yeah, I was reminded with a previous episode about the sort of deep clutter that lurks in different places of the house. And one of those things was a recipe book that I had or a folder where I would stash recipes that friends and family had given me plus things I'd
00:14:11
Speaker
yanked out of the newspaper or magazines back when I read newspapers. And I had probably had looked at it for, I don't know, I would look at it for months at a time. And when I do look at it, it's often to find things I'm going to bake with the kids. And there were just so many recipes in there that I've never tried, that I know I never will try. There were recipes in there from the 90s that I remember when I first moved out of home.
00:14:36
Speaker
of things that I thought, oh, this might be good to try, most of which I never have. And I just went through and got rid of probably 90% of the recipes. So I was just left with gorgeous handwritten recipes from friends and family that are tried and true when it's just nice to have their little handwritten memento or recipes that I'd kind of forgotten that I put in there that I'm still feeling really inspired about and still look appealing. And I know
00:15:00
Speaker
will actually get made and I also had that's the place I used to keep fast food menus back when I didn't just grab Uber Eats every other time.
00:15:11
Speaker
And I just chucked all of those out. So that was really nice knowing that this book is now way more relevant. It doesn't have distracting things in there. And I'm probably going to use it a lot more. I tend to use it a lot more. So I felt good. I can imagine being much more desirable to open that folder now that you know what's in there is actually useful rather than full of non-useful information. Well now it's just full of the greatest hits now, as opposed to all these red herrings and things I just felt guilty about because I never made.
00:15:39
Speaker
Did you have a life admin low? Was there something super annoying you had to deal with? There is and unfortunately, it's not resolved yet. Last month, my husband and I went through the process of deciding to change credit cards to try and maximize those frequent flyer points. So after having done the analysis and choosing what I thought was the best option, really just looking at the
00:16:02
Speaker
Frequent Flypoint aspect. What's actually happened now that we've got the card and we've started to use it, they've got this really cumbersome admin associated with it. So as an additional card holder, because the credit card's in my husband's name, I can only see my transactions. This is when you log into like the online banking area. You can only see your transaction.
00:16:26
Speaker
I can only see my transactions. I can't even see what the balance of the credit card is, but I'm the one who predominantly manages the financial side of things. So the actual app means that the bonus points are really not worth it because it's really hard to manage. So I think we actually, sadly, after going through the torturous process of application forms, et cetera,
00:16:52
Speaker
Really we need to cancel and start again something that will be easier to manage cuz maybe the points actually aren't worth the hassle real shame cuz i know when you did that i was thinking oh my gosh that is such a good deal with the points cuz it was tens of thousands of points right no and you get quite generous.
00:17:08
Speaker
allocations of points when you actually spend. And I was thinking, I need to change credit cards because that sounds amazing. So it's really unfortunate that the management interface is so bad that it's actually not worthwhile. Yeah. So I think there's a tip there about maybe not going for the non-conventional credit card and
00:17:26
Speaker
Sadly just sticking with the big four banks who've got the better online service probably makes the life admin much easier. Well I think it's both another episode in the future when we look at financial products and choosing between them and how to make those things easy because I think a lot of people feel like they might not necessarily have the right credit card or loan or other kind of service and that's really daunting to imagine switching.
Future Topics and Habit Frameworks
00:17:48
Speaker
So let's have an episode dedicated to how you
00:17:51
Speaker
can make quicker decisions about that kind of thing and identify the right products for yourself. We definitely do and we definitely need to add a criteria around ongoing management, not just the actual deal in itself.
00:18:04
Speaker
So Mia, this week you're going to do a book review. I am slightly in love with Gretchen Rubin. She's this American writer who writes about habits and happiness. And she wrote a book called Better Than Before that was about creating new habits and jettisoning unhelpful habits. And as part of that research, she came up with
00:18:27
Speaker
this framework, this personality framework, I guess, called the Four Tendencies. And the Four Tendencies is about how people respond to expectations, how they respond to outer expectations, which might be, you know, answering requests from a friend or meeting a work deadline and inner expectations where you might say, this is easy, if I'm really going to give spinning a go or I'm really going to start meditating. And depending on our tendency,
00:18:54
Speaker
we might respond to these expectations differently. And why this is important is because it really impacts the way we might take on a habit. So when Diana and I started researching life admin tasks and habits and processes,
00:19:09
Speaker
we realized we were going to have to change the way we do things. Sometimes it's really hard to change habits. Some people find it a lot easier than others. And the four tendencies gives you some self-awareness so that you might find some strategies to help make these new habits stick. So you can go to
00:19:25
Speaker
Gretchen Rubin dot com. She has a little quiz. It's very short. Ask you a few questions and it will tell you whether you are an upholder, a questioner, an obliger or a rebel. And basically once you know this about yourself, you can understand the kinds of strategies that might help you stick to new habits or get rid of old habits more easily. So I recommend it. There is that actual book called The Four Tendencies where she just explains
00:19:52
Speaker
how these tendencies work. And it's actually really good insight into knowing how people around you, like your partner or people that you work with, what they might be so you can understand why the hell do they ask me a million questions? And I've just asked them this simply, why won't they just do it? Maybe they're a questioner or maybe you have a friend who's constantly burning out because they don't know how to say no. Maybe they are an upholder or maybe there's someone who just doesn't give a hell about anything and just does everything to their own speed and maybe they're a rebel.
00:20:21
Speaker
Anyway, try the Four Tendencies quiz. You'll have some insight about yourself. You can read the book or you can read her Better Than Before book where she gives a sort of an introduction to that framework as well. I highly recommend it.
00:20:35
Speaker
That's great, Mia. I also noticed that her happier book, her original book, had its 10th anniversary this week, and she's republishing a new edition with up-to-date info, so that might be also one to cover with her. Yeah, I really wish I'd discovered it 10 years ago. It's full of really practical things. I love it.
00:20:53
Speaker
So that wraps us up for this episode. Remember to try out life hacks for password management and form filling data this week. Use a password manager, pick one, start a free trial, see how it goes. Add the passwords and the form filling data that you use most frequently. And also get yourself an information sheet where you can put out the information that you use most commonly so that you can fill out other kinds of forms more efficiently.
00:21:21
Speaker
Please head to our Facebook group and share your thoughts and experiences on this week's topic and feel free to post any questions or episode suggestions for us. We look forward to seeing you there. Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeadminlifehacks.com. If you're a fan, please subscribe and share the love and tell a friend or review us in your podcasting app.