Keeping your devices fully charged while traveling can be a challenge. I’m on a trip to visit family in Walla Walla, Washington, and I find that I did not pack all the right charging cables. I’ve had a good system for some years, involving a packing cube that I keep stocked with my travel cords, which are separated using labeled binder clips. That’s worked well because I can easily see that I have everything when I’m packing for a trip. It also allows me to see if any cables are missing when I pack up my hotel room to come home.
But here’s where things failed: I didn’t update my system when I got an iPhone 12 with MagSafe charger that has a USB-C charging cable. I also have a backup battery to charge my phone that charges with a USB-C cable. That means I need to bring extra cables and at least one USB-C brick. On this trip, I ended up having to play musical chairs with cables.
While it’s fresh in my mind, I created a checklist of cables, in Evernote, that I will need for future travel. I also created a task on my Trello task board to add a couple of labeled binder clips to the packing cube when I get home to my label maker. They will serve as a reminder, if I need it, to check my new Evernote checklist and make sure I have everything. I hope that I will be able to store all the cables in my packing cube, if I have enough cables for everyday use available to me.
I’ve managed to keep everything charged on this trip but it’s been a bit more challenging than necessary. I’m glad I thought to create the checklist, so I don’t have to rely on my memory. I look forward to updating the system when I get home to make future travel easier!