I’m halfway through the 30 days of my 30 x 30 challenge. Back in August when I last did this, I was able to post about my wonderful progress and how I hadn’t missed a day.

Alas, that’s not the case this time. I underestimated the impact of our puppy, Bix, on my productivity and available time. As I mentioned a month ago, Bix joined our family on December 13 as an eight-week-old puppy. He’s now 13 weeks old and growing up to be a very well behaved puppy. But during those five weeks he required a whole lot of attention to keep him out of trouble. Couple that with January being my busiest month for my organizing business (which I should have taken into account) and I find I’m doing little but working with clients, watching and training Bix, and handling essential admin tasks for Peace of Mind Organizing.

In other words, I’ve barely done any genealogy research in the past two weeks. I’ve managed 30 minutes just a few days. If I didn’t have the challenge going, I’m confident I wouldn’t have done any!

But I’m not throwing in the towel. Instead I’m regrouping and thinking about the lessons of the month so far:

• My genealogy research isn’t going anywhere, but my puppy is growing up fast.
• Serving my organizing clients obviously has to be a priority.
• The fact that I’m not researching daily doesn’t devalue the research I’ve been able to do.
• Fear of failure shouldn’t stop me from starting challenges like these. It’s okay not to succeed.
• I’ll be starting up a new challenge as soon as the time is right. I love these challenges!
• Next time I do a 30 x 30 challenge I want to take a close look at the calendar and consider competing factors. This was an ill-timed challenge, despite it being the first of the year
• Some research is better than no research. I’ll keep doing what research I can.

I’m thrilled that some of you are taking part in the challenge and reporting on your successes on the blog. Please continue doing so!

I imagine it will be at least a couple of months before Bix is less labor-intensive. Until then, I’m going to cut myself a break!

Last summer, I did a personal 30 x 30 challenge, in which I committed to doing 30 minutes of family history research for 30 days. It had a number of benefits, the most obvious of which was that I accomplished 15 hours of family history research that month!

With the holiday season, travel, and the addition of a puppy to our family, I got precious little family history research done the last month or two of the year. So I decided that the new year was a great time to start a new 30 x 30 challenge.

I intended to start it on January 1, but I woke up on New Year’s Day with a cold (and a bit of a hangover), so put it off until January 2. I did research on the 2nd and 3rd and completely forgot about it yesterday.

So today, I’m starting a new challenge, which will run from January 5 to February 4. I’m working on my Adams line this quarter, so I will be focusing on the Civil War pension file for my union ancestor George Washington Adams, as well as checking my sources and making sure my electronic documents are properly filed for my other Adams ancestors.

Let me know if you’d care to join me in a 30 x 30 challenge this month!