Happy to new year to all my readers! Boy, do I need a 30 x 30 challenge. I have been so disconnected from my research since my last 30 x 30 challenge in October, first because of National Novel Writing Month and then I was slammed with work for my organizing business in December. So my research has been quite dormant, which makes me sad.
Starting January 1 I commit to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research every day for 30 days. Will you join me?
The first step for me–which I hope to do before January 1 rolls around–will be getting back in touch with what I was doing with my research. I’ll do that by reviewing my informal research log. I hope to take some time this weekend to set some goals for my genealogy research in 2020 as well. I think that I’m going to try to keep them simple this year, with an emphasis on daily research. (If there’s one thing that these 30 x 30 challenges have taught me, it’s the value of daily research.)
So please let me know in the comments if you’re interested in participating in the January 2020 30 x 30 challenge. I’ll do a mid-month status report that I’ll invite you to participate in. Otherwise it’s very low key…just an opportunity to get back into daily research knowing that others are doing it with you.
Can’t wait to get into daily research!
I’m in! I have a new computer (a Macpro laptop) and need to move my genealogy files. There isn’t many right now but I will continue to digitize and back-up my paper file. I’m hoping this process will be faster on a new computer!
Excellent, Zenda! I hope you love your new Mac!
I’m in
Terrific!
Yeah! I’m in! Can’t wait to be held accountable for my genealogy.
Great, Roberta! I hope it’s a great month!
I’m in. I need to get back to my research after the holidays and this sounds perfect for me.
It’s a great time to get back to it. Welcome to the challenge, Linda!
I am in. The last 3 months has been a bust for me. I look forward to restarting my genealogy research. Usually, I setup goals every year. This year I want to complete goals that have been outstanding for the past two years.
New year, new decade! I look forward to restarting with you, Jerry.
I will commit to something a little bit different which will work out to about 30 minutes a day: I am going to begin scanning family photos from my childhood so that my siblings can have them, too. I commit to scanning 10 per day, using a naming convention like Janine has suggested before. I have already set up my file folder structure on my computer. Let’s do this!
That’s a great project, Christy! Can’t wait to see how quickly it goes for you.
I’m in!
Excellent!
I’m going to give it a try. I need to get back in the groove again.
Excellent!
I am also in. I’m going to write up a reseearch plan. 2019 was my least productive year for my personal genealogy goals. I really miss the research and writing.
That’s a great project for this challenge, Mary!
Count me in. This is the first time I’ve tried. I have boxes of genealogy I need to organize, digitize and file. I’ve been doing genealogy since 1970s varioius ways and I really need to pull it all together.
Terrific, Marilyn. I hope it’s a very productive month!
I’m in most definitely.
Great, Trisha!
Count me in! I’m also sharing on my DAR chapter’s facebook page. .
Terrific, Melinda. Thank you for sharing!
I’m in. December was wonderful, full of family gatherings and sharing of my family history progress; it’s time to get back to making progress on the genealogy documentation.
Excellent, Terry! Welcome to the challenge!
I’ve always loved January as a fresh start month. There’s a lot on my plate right now personally and I’m not going to pressure myself to commit to too much, but I want to give it a try. I’ll aim to develop a research plan for the year, which I hope will include at least 2 blog posts a month and getting better organized.
I agree about January–and it’s a new decade as well as a new year! I hope this challenge will gently enable you focus on your research.
I’m back in again, too!!
Happy new year, Janine!
Yay, Barbara! Happy new year!
I’m in! I need to clean up my tree and I was about to switch over from FTM to Roots Magic. This is the perfect way to get back in the game!
Excellent, Diana! That’s the kind of project that benefits from daily effort.
I’m in! It may not be a perfect month……but it will be good enough!
Vickie
Music to my ears, Vickie! I’m glad you’re in.
I’m interested in the 30×30 challenge! I have a lot of new information to organize and summarize for one of my ancestors as well as some of my husband’s – the result of two successful, but not long enough!, research trips this year. I have not yet answered my main research question from last year, so that will be my primary focus this year. It is very frustrating to have a lot of information about an ancestor on one hand, and then have them become very elusive!
I’m curious – how do you break up your tasks in 30 minute chunks? Do you just stop at the end of 30 minutes, or do you do a wrap up in the last bit of time? Do you set a timer? I tend to lose track of time when I’m researching!
Cecile
Welcome to the challenge, Cecile! Personally, I set a timer because I usually can’t spare more than 30 minutes (unless it’s a weekend and often not even then.) After the timer goes off, I spend a minute writing in my research log and recording my next steps so I can pick up the next day where I left off.
I’m in!
Great!
This is my first time to do a 30 x 30 challenge. I am looking forward to it.
Terrific! I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful.
I’m in. The past several months have been difficult and challenging, so I am definitely ready to get start being more productive with my genealogical research and organization.
Welcome to the challenge, Cynthia. I hope it helps make January an easier month for you.
I am so in need of this right now. I haven’t researched in quite a while. But since it’s the New Year, I think I’m going to take the opportunity to start entering in data in my Roots Magic software, that I got as a Christmas present in 2018, for my January 2020 30X30 challenge. Wish me luck. Happy New Year!!!!!
Good luck, Trisha! The new year is a great time for this. Glad you’re joining the challenge!
I’m in! I hope doing daily research will help me finally settle on a stable workflow. I keep reinventing the wheel when I pick up my research after a break — sometimes I can’t even remember how or why I was doing things! My goal this year is to completed organize documentation up to my 8 great-grandparents.
Welcome to the challenge, Donna! I think you’ll find that daily research will be really helpful to stay in the flow. I know it is for me!
Well better late than never I’m in I’ll try to catch up…need to do some serious getting it together this year I just turned 80 been doing this for 40 years and I really need to get my books going for my descendants
Dorothy, welcome to the challenge! What a wonderful goal you have. I’m sure daily effort will be beneficial. Best of luck with it!