We’re halfway through September. If you’re participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, in which we’ve committed to doing 30 minutes of genealogy-related activity for 30 days in a row (or whatever variation of that you’d like), it’s time to check in. How is it going? Let us know in the comments.

I’ll start. I had committed to working through my paper genealogy files, making sure that I have scanned everything in them so I can let them go. I’ve moved to an apartment and I have a fraction of the file space I had when I lived in our big home. How’s it going? Not great, but horrible either. I worked on the project probably six of the 15 days. And I’m making slow progress. One thing I know is that if I hadn’t taken on the 30 x 30 challenge, I wouldn’t have done anything!

Please comment and let us know how it’s going and whether the challenge has been helpful!

Who is up for a last-minute 30 x 30 challenge! There’s something about the beginning of September that feels like such a fresh start. It seems like a great time for a 30 x 30 challenge. Who would like to join me for some daily research (or organizing or doing whatever you want to commit to)? We typically commit to 30 minutes for 30 days, though your goal can be whatever you want.

Because of all that’s going on in my life, I haven’t been doing much genealogy research. I can now share that we experienced a life changing event: my husband had a heart transplant on July 29. He came home from the hospital on August 27 and my role now is primarily that of caregiver. Actually, that just means I’m fetching stuff for him, reminding him to take his meds, accompanying him on walks and generally being encouraging. He’s doing quite well.

Now that Barry is out of the hospital, I have more time at home and I would like to focus my 30 x 30 challenge on my genealogy paper files. I don’t have a lot of them, but I did move all of them in June without going through them. So this month my goal is go through all the files (they fit in one file box) and scan those for which I don’t already have digital copies. I intend to keep very few, if any. I’ll do it 30 days in a row, unless I finish the project before then.

If you’d like to participate, just comment below. I’ll post a mid-month check in to see how it’s going for everyone and then we’ll wrap up at the end of the month.

For those of you participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, how’s it going? Were you able to put in 30 minutes a day toward your goal? If not, did you end up doing more than you would have done had you not been doing the challenge?

You’ll recall that my commitment wasn’t for daily genealogy research this month, rather it was to work on getting ready for my move every day. The move is now five days away (gulp), on June 21, and you can bet that I’ve been working on it every day for way more than 30 minutes. I have professional organizers (my team members) coming in to help me pack this week and unpack starting Saturday. So the days in the coming week will be full but they’ll also be very productive.

I’m hopeful that you’ve had a productive month as well! Please let us know in the comments how your challenge is going.