Cable Mgt - A Project in my list that isn't moving!

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mksilk2

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Hi All, in my study I have a shelf that is full of various cables that seem to congregate there all by themselves. I have had a project in my GTD system (Nirvana) for quite a while to 'Clean up the Cables'. This project hasn't progressed. I realised that the reason for not moving is that I don't know what to do with them, I don't know how to best organise them. So I thought of the GTD community. If there is one community that might have a solution it would be this one. Anyone have any ideas or has a good solution in place and is willing to share?
 
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Do you use them? All of them? How often?

Do they (1) belong there but you don't have tidy storage for them, or (2) belong somewhere else but they congregate there because in a moment when you're done using one, it's too much trouble to put it away?

If it's the first, I'd just get a decent looking container to store them in, and maybe declutter them in case there are more than you need. I have a small drawer with a "Cables" label attached to it.

If it's the second, I'd go with a landing zone strategy. (I think I got that term from the book Home Comforts.) Figure out roughly how often you want to put them away--every two weeks? Figure out what volume is likely to pile up in that interval. Get a decent-looking container--basket? Open box? of that volume and put it on the shelf. Give yourself a reminder for every two weeks--or every week if you tend to snooze your reminders--to put them away. In the interval, just merrily toss the cables there.

I have four landing zones by my desk. (Papers, Work Stuff, Stationery Stuff, and Strays) I manage them as described above. I just cleaned them out today.
 
You could organize them on a pegboard, sorted by the date the standard they follow was approved, so all usb-c cables would follow usb-a cables, which would be preceded by rs-232 cables. Kind of strange, but it’s a way to do it. A better way: Remember good old “who, what, when, where, how and why?” Who uses the cable how for what when something needs to be done somewhere because of why. If you forget what the cables are for, label them. Most of the cables I use even occasionally are in the places I need them to be: on my desk, downstairs in the kitchen charging station, and in various bags and packs.
 
mksilk2 said:
Hi All, in my study I have a shelf that is full of various cables that seem to congregate there all by themselves. I have had a project in my GTD system (Nirvana) for quite a while to 'Clean up the Cables'. This project hasn't progressed. I realised that the reason for not moving is that I don't know what to do with them, I don't know how to best organise them. So I thought of the GTD community. If there is one community that might have a solution it would be this one. Anyone have any ideas or has a good solution in place and is willing to share?
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First off from a GTD perspective this is a project not a next action. The project is Organize the Cables. The next action might be:

Research cable organizing systems or Brainstorm how to organize cables

After that next action might be
Buy bins for cables
Buy hooks for cables
Etc…

After that, place cables into bins or whatever system you buy

And after that maybe a next action to label them.

After that project complete


You cannot organize them as you dont know what to do with them. First step is to define the plan. Once that is done buy/make what you need. After that only can you execute the plan.
 
Give each cable a name following a theme (eg Pokemon names). Label them with your GTD label maker and arrange them alphabetically. Sounds odd but I bet your most used cables begin to take on a character of their own.
 
Gardener said:
Do you use them? All of them? How often?

Do they (1) belong there but you don't have tidy storage for them, or (2) belong somewhere else but they congregate there because in a moment when you're done using one, it's too much trouble to put it away?

If it's the first, I'd just get a decent looking container to store them in, and maybe declutter them in case there are more than you need. I have a small drawer with a "Cables" label attached to it.

If it's the second, I'd go with a landing zone strategy. (I think I got that term from the book Home Comforts.) Figure out roughly how often you want to put them away--every two weeks? Figure out what volume is likely to pile up in that interval. Get a decent-looking container--basket? Open box? of that volume and put it on the shelf. Give yourself a reminder for every two weeks--or every week if you tend to snooze your reminders--to put them away. In the interval, just merrily toss the cables there.

I have four landing zones by my desk. (Papers, Work Stuff, Stationery Stuff, and Strays) I manage them as described above. I just cleaned them out today.
Click to expand...
Nice . . . "I have four landing zones by my desk. (Papers, Work Stuff, Stationery Stuff, and Trays) I manage them as described above. I just cleaned them out today."

On thins End . . . Five In-Boxes . . . for Five General Areas-of-Focus . . . helps to reduce any potential "What is It?" friction and keeps every thing GTD FLOWING!
 
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I wanted to chime in on this topic since this a topic/problem near and dear to me, in different degrees. As others pointed out, there is some research you need to do in order to find out what will work for you and what makes sense given your environment/constraints (i.e. maybe storage space is limited or you need to frequently access the cables for short periods of time, etc.).

I have a large general storage container/tub with a locking lid that I dump cables into once I tie them up (twist-ties, hair-ties, and zip wraps are great for this). For the smaller cables (i.e. less than 5ft) I have a few pouches that are specifically for organizing cables that I put them in (in nice, neat little bow-tie like shapes). Then those pouches go into the container.

For more frequently needed cables (i.e. USB-A to USB-C, Lightening to USB-A/C, Thunderbolt, etc.), I keep those handy in a desk drawer as I will frequently need them during the course of day.

However, I still have not figured out "in-use" cables' cable management (i.e. the cables that are behind my desk) ... that's something I am still researching, tinkering with, and contemplating on what approach I'd like to use/go with.

Best of luck!
 
I don't know what volume we're talking about here, but I have a drawer with miscellaneous cables. Not very neat, but for me, the critical point is to have them neatly coiled! This way, I can very quickly find the one I need because the ends of the cables are easy to identify. For my audio XLR cables, they are neatly coiled and stacked in a suitable plastic box, sorted after length.
 
mksilk2 said:
Hi All, in my study I have a shelf that is full of various cables that seem to congregate there all by themselves. I have had a project in my GTD system (Nirvana) for quite a while to 'Clean up the Cables'. This project hasn't progressed. I realised that the reason for not moving is that I don't know what to do with them, I don't know how to best organise them. So I thought of the GTD community. If there is one community that might have a solution it would be this one. Anyone have any ideas or has a good solution in place and is willing to share?
Click to expand...
A coach asked me once “If you had nothing else in the universe to do right now but this… what would you do right now?” Good way to diagnose what the very next action is
 
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