Passwords. They’re the key to keeping our lives secure, yet so often the bane of our existence when forgotten, lost, or breached.

That’s why every year on first Thursday of May, World Password Day reminds us to stop and take stock of our password security—before it’s too late.

What Is World Password Day?

Now, you’re unlikely to break out a cake and candles for World Password Day; it’s probably not at the top of your yearly reminders. But given the importance of passwords is pretty much universal, taking a day to look at your password security is no bad thing.

First launched in 2012 by tech giant Intel, World Password Day has grown surprisingly over the years into a yearly reminder that password security is vital to keeping your accounts secure. Given most folks now control a huge number of accounts—up to 240 according to Dashlane—it’s harder than ever to maintain your security.

And that’s really the crux of World Password Day: a reminder that account security doesn’t have to be a challenge, especially given how many ways there are to protect your accounts now. The days of “qwertyuiop” should be long gone, and don’t even think about adding numerical increments to your go-to password. No, the password management options available to almost anyone these days should mean each and every one of your accounts is secured with an extremely strong password.

How to Create a Strong, Unique Password: The Basics

MakeUseOf is celebrating World Password Day with a week covering the best password tips and tricks to keep your accounts safe and secure. But there are some handy password creation tips you can take away immediately to start locking down your digital footprint.

1. Use a Password Manager: More than any other tip, you need to start using a password manager if you’re not already. Bitwarden is one of our favorite password managers, but there are other excellent free and premium password managers.
2. Use Your Password Manager’s Generator: Your password manager will have a password generator to create strong, unique passwords. It’s infinitely better at generating secure passwords than a human. Just make sure you’re using an offline version to make sure your password isn’t sent across the internet.
3. At Least 16 Characters: Previously, common password advice was to use a minimum of 12 random characters for maximum entropy, but really, more is better. We suggest a minimum of 16 characters.
4. Never Reuse Your Password: This is also very important, as if you reuse your passwords across accounts and one is breached, then your whole system fails. This is one area where using a password manager excels, as it’ll create a new, unique password for each account, and you don’t have to remember each one.
5. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication: Where possible, enable a form of multi-factor authentication to add a secondary line of defense against a data breach.

Oh, and there is one password myth you should avoid: regularly updating your passwords is a big no-no. In the past, this was considered good practice, but actually leads to the exact problems detailed above: short, easy-to-remember passwords with incremental changes. For example, you initially use “sunflowers1”, but your organization makes you reset it each month. Instead of creating a strong password each time, you just change the number, so it’s simple to remember. Easy for the memory, terrible for security.

World Password Day is a great time to take stock and check your online accounts. Checking your passwords doesn’t take as long as you think, and it could be the difference between keeping your accounts secure and spending hours trying to recover them.