It’s the end of the month! The 30 x 30 challenge officially ended yesterday. I wanted to check in today and out how this summer’s challenge went. Were you able to do something genealogy-related every day for 30 days? Please report in the comments!
I’ll start: The challenge was tremendous for me. It was just what I needed to refocus. Having made this commitment, I made sure to do the research every morning, before I got going with other stuff during the day. I find that if I want to get something done, I need to do it first thing in the morning.
Whereas prior to this challenge, according to my research log, I hadn’t researched in two weeks, this month I blogged each and every day, save one. I did have one early-morning client appointment that prompted me to eschew research until later in the day. But after eight hours of leading a decluttering team that day, I was too brain dead to research. So I did miss one day. But overall I felt great about the challenge.
I notice that when I research a little bit every day, I stay in touch with my research and I don’t get overwhelmed. Also with daily research I always know what I’m going to work on when I get started (since it’s been just a day since my last session). That makes makes getting started much easier. It’s a huge benefit to daily research.
Even though the challenge is officially over, I’m going to try to continue with the daily research.
I’d love to hear how it went for those of you who decided to participate this month!
Although I missed several days, thanks to the challenge, I got a great deal more accomplished than I would have otherwise. And I feel refocused and re-launched. Thank you!
Wonderful, Louise!!
I missed three or four days, but put in many more hours on the days that I did research. This was perfect for me because I had been in a very dry spell. Now I’m excited and ready to climb my Tree.
I’m so glad you broke out of your dry spell, Melva! Sometimes, getting re-started is the hardest part. So glad to hear you’re excited and ready!
I have followed your blog for long enough to know that you research first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, my mornings (and sometimes early afternoons) are usually filled with exercise, errands, and other responsibilities that must get done. I’d love advice on how to do a 30 x 30 challenge when it’s hard for me to find those 30 minutes first thing in the morning. And how do I stop after 30 minutes? Once I get going, it’s hard to stop 😉 Perhaps knowing that I will continue with 30 minutes the next day? Thanks!
Elizabeth, first of all I applaud your exercising in the morning! One way you could find 30 minutes in the morning would be to get up a half hour earlier. Then stopping after 30 minutes should be easier because you have exercise, errands and other responsibilities to accomplish. Personally, I just set a timer and then I stop because I have work to do. Alternatively, you could find another time of day that works well for you. Perhaps before or after dinner. I think knowing that you’ll have 30 more minutes, along with keeping a log of what you’ve done in the session and what the next steps should be, might make it easier for you to stop. If stopping is real issue for you, then squeezing in the 30 minutes before another responsibility should make it easier to stop.
This challenge helped me see how only 30 minutes can produce good results when scheduled on a regular basis. I spent this time sorting and moving my digital files from large surname files into smaller family group files. I do have one difficult area if you have any suggestions. With all the newspaper sites where you can clip family news items, which I do site in detail, how could I organize these news stories keeping both a digital file and print a paper copy. I need a way to organize all my news stories for printing.
It was a good month. Got lots accomplish
Glad to hear it!
I managed to get 10 days of research done this month although not all of them consecutively. Hopefully this month will be better.
Ten days is great, Rebecca! So much better than five days or zero days. Here’s to a great August!
I was able to do some genealogy for 30 – 40 minutes per day. I did miss one day when I attended a local genealogy conference. My time was spent entering new data, researching new data, and scanning in old conference notes. Thanks for having the challenge. I am ready to start my August challenge. Enjoy your blogs.
Jerry, in my mind, going to a genealogy conference counts as research! Congrats on such a productive month. I’m keeping the challenge up for myself, too, though I had to miss two days already this month due to heavy work obligations.
Yikes! It was not a good month, we had a couple of hospitalizations.. with me on my IPad searching. So, I would say I managed a 50% rate on this try. Thanks for the encouragement, I think that the challenge is a really great part of your community.
Maria, I’m sorry to hear about hospitalizations! I’m impressed that you made 50% on this try. Hope everything improves.