This straightforward USB cable accent helps me reclaim hours of my time

Being a tech editor and reviewer, I’ve handled a long time value of units. That’s all effectively and good however the result’s that I’ve accrued an terrible lot of cables which have ended up in a large tangled heap. I’m speaking a few thicket so dense and entwined it may rival the Amazon rainforest’s most inaccessible components.

The cables that make up this pile are available quite a lot of varieties, from USB-A to USB-C cords, energy cords, HDMI cables and chargers — and, with many having no distinguishing function aside from the scale of their connectors, it may be extremely irritating and time consuming attempting to inform them aside. Clearly, I’m in determined want of a repair — and fortunately — I’ve discovered one.

My aha! second with USB cables

My aha second got here once I chanced on these cable wire identifiers from Amazon. Now I really feel type of sheepish admitting that the answer to my downside was so easy and staring me within the face, costing as little as $7, and out there for supply inside just some days.

Yep, I’ve began affixing them to simply about each new USB cable that I get — in addition to retrospectively to the cables within the pile I created, and already I’m beginning to see a stage of group and readability in my workspace that I by no means thought attainable earlier than.

These useful tags are available quite a lot of colours so I can coloration code my cables by sort. The labels are sufficiently big for me to jot down not solely the machine they’re for, however what they do, so I can select the correct cable sort in a jiffy. They’re each self-adhesive and waterproof, and laser printer pleasant too.

Aside from simply bringing order to the mess, I’m completely satisfied that my units are in quite a bit much less hazard of being broken by me once I use the incorrect cables with them.

Now that I’m labelling cables, I’m ditching my previous inefficient methods the place I may simply sink an hour or extra into discovering the correct one. Generally the only options could make the largest affect in your life, so I’m watching out for different life hacks like this one to streamline my workday and my time. I wholeheartedly encourage you to do the identical.

Additional studying: Shopping for a USB-C cable? 6 gotchas to be careful for