I’ve been giving some thoughts to the goals I want to set for my genealogy research for next year. I’m a big goal setter and I’ve written posts about my genealogy goals for 2013, 2014, and 2015. (I guess that I didn’t set any for 2016. I blame my puppy, Bix, who completely disrupted the 2015/2016 transition.)
I reviewed those posts this week and was struck by the fact that while I’m pretty good about setting genealogy goals, I’m pretty bad at achieving them.
So this year, I decided to keep it painfully simple. I’m setting only three four goals. And I’m narrowing my focus, in a big way.
I know that I do better with fewer options because I’m easily overwhelmed by choices. In 2014 I addressed that by coming up with a plan to focus on one family line per quarter.
In 2017, I’ve decided to take this a step further and focus on a single family line the whole year. 2017 is going be the year of the Adams family. This feels big to me–simultaneously exciting and weirdly scary. But I feel if I keep my focus on the Adams family (starting by finishing the transcribing and abstracting George Washington Adams’ giant pension file), I will stay more focused and dig deeper. I’m a little concerned it might get boring, but I don’t think so.
You can bet that I’ll let you guys know how it goes.
The three four goals I’ve set (in concert with limiting my focus) are:
- Research at least five days a week
- Take at least one research trip
- Attend at least two genealogy conferences, to avoid tunnel vision and keep me sharp. (One of those will be RootsTech, since I’m speaking there. I haven’t yet determined the other(s).)
- Create a habit of logging each research session. (I added this goal after my ruminations on December 27 that led to this post.)
How about you? Do you set goals for your genealogy research? If so, do you care to share them?
Im better at goal setting than goal achieving too! I like your idea of focusing on one family – I tend to be very scatter gunned in my own research so this could be good discipline for me too
If you try it, please let me know how it goes!
I understand you wanting to focus on just one family, especially with that big file to transcribe. But I feel guilty when I focus too much on one branch and let the others go for awhile. Also when I pick up where I left off, I feel a little rusty. I only can research in my off work time, so I don’t get to touch on my families as much as I would like to. Good luck on achieving your goals!
Barbara, thanks for sharing your perspective. I guess since I do genealogy just for myself, guilt doesn’t enter in. But I know if I focus on one line per year, by the time I get to the fourth family I’ll be extremely rusty! Enjoy your research. Thanks for commenting!
My genealogy goals for 2017 are:
1. Break through the 1870 Brick Wall for my direct maternal and/or paternal line.
2. Learn more about DNA and genetic genealogy.
3. Expand my “genealogy do over” to collateral lines.
4. Take a closer look at friends, associates and neighbors (FANs) in the documents I have.
Hopefully #2-#4 will help me achieve my numero uno goal.
Thanks for commenting, Danni. Those are excellent goals that should take you far. (I share #2, though I didn’t put it on my list.) Good luck and let us know how it goes!
My goals this year. 1) Create a research/checklist log I like and works for me. 2) Make a citing sources template for various sources. 3) Schedule time in my planner for research without interruptions. 4) Focus on one generation/person at a time.
Rhonda, those are worthy goals! I wish you the very best with them. Keep us posted, either here or in the Genealogy Research Loggers Facebook group.