1. Keep a master password list on paper or on CD-ROM (flash drives degrade over time more quickly than paper or CD) in a physically diverse place. Hard drives melt down for no reason. Buildings burn down. Keeping a master list in a safe deposit box at your bank, for example, ensures it is protected in the case of some catastrophic event at the office or with your equipment. And update it quarterly if not monthly.

2. If you have others setting up accounts for you, give them instruction on security question responses. These responses do not actually have to be someone’s mom’s maiden name. You could use a simple variation of the company name or a single made-up word as your response to pet’s first name, grade school, first phone number, etc. The form doesn’t care. If you want to go a step further, you could add “FB” or “TW” to the end of the word to distinguish accounts, though this isn’t entirely necessary.

3. For the generic Gmail account, enable two-factor authentication to help prevent general cracking or unauthorized password changes by interns, for example.