What is interesting about this question is that just by answering it I become less secure.  If you know how I protect my passwords you know a powerful thing about me and are more able to use that information to compromise my own security.  I doubt you plan to do me harm but neither of us can assure that to be true for those that read this post.

Passwords are inherently unsecure the more complex you make them the more likely you are to write them down in places that are easy to find largely eliminating the security you were trying to create. 

But I don't write them down which generally means I have to reset them a lot.  On the other hand I don't have to worry about anyone finding them either.  Currently I'm evaluating a number of biometic password protection tools and hope to choose one in a week or so. 

I'd bet relatively few people actually write down passwords. What many of us do instead, I think, is to use the same few variations, many of which involve personal info (name, nickname, bday, etc). A friend of mine recently pointed out that many of the quizzes so popular now on FB and other sites pose a security risk for this reason. (What was your first pet's name? Do you have a nickname? Last 4 digits of your Social Security number? Hey, what the...)

I keep my passwords in a simple Excel spreadsheet that is also password protected, and I use a file name that's not obvious. Too difficult to remember 100+ passwords for all the services and access rights I use in the business.

Works very well and is secure.