I’m a big goal setter. Am I a big goal achiever? Not so much when it comes to genealogy goals. Every year I set them (and blog about them) and then I never look at them again. This year, I created a vision board (we recorded a podcast episode about that) and “Little and Often” is part of my vision board, to remind me to work on genealogy frequently.
So this year, in an effort to actually remember and attain my genealogy goals I am making them very simple. Here they are:
- Research little and often
- Take one genealogy webinar or class a week
- Have no documents in my backlog on the last day of every month
Those goals feel attainable and easy to remember. I am going to have a 30 x 30 challenge for the month of January, which will help me stick with the little and often part of it. (Watch for a post about that next week.)
How about you? Do you set genealogy goals? If so, do you achieve them?
Hi Janine, I do make genealogy goals…quarterly. I like thinking in smaller blocks of time. Your tip on a vision board is really good. I have a perfect place for one in my office! I blog about family history and will have my blog about goals out on Jan. 1st. Thanks for all the great tips you give! I enjoy following your blog.
Gray Stabley
http://www.graystabley.com
Gray, thanks for your kind words. I look forward to reading your blog post about goals!
I’m definitely embracing your goal to watch webinars – they are motivating and informational, and I often think I should do that more often. Another important goal for me is to find an organized way to record the “to-do’s”, the “wanna-do’s”, the thoughts and inspirations. I have jotted down the names of webinars to watch, along with other plans, insights about research, but where did I write that? Without an organized note system I totally forget.
I hear you, Linda! For me, Evernote fulfills that note-taking role. I have Evernote follow-up notebooks by surname (or family line) and I jot things to look up that I come across there. Mine is definitely an imperfect system, but I find Evernote a good tool for capturing that information. Here’s a post I wrote about my follow-up notebooks: https://organizeyourfamilyhistory.com/follow-up-notebooks-to-the-rescue/
My blog post this week is about how I’m not setting goals as such, just continuing to build on the work I’ve done this year. For me, goals just don’t work – I set them and then get frustrated when things happen in my life and the goals fall by the wayside. Then again, I fail at research logs too…
Teresa, Thank you for sharing your perspective! I can’t imagine not setting goals because I find them so beneficial, but it proves how wonderfully different people are. I think recognizing that goals don’t work for you is really insightful.
I’m currently pondering what my goals will look like for 2023. I recently listened to your podcast on the vision board, and I’m really excited to create mine. Using Canva is brilliant! Thanks for providing motivation and tools!
Lynette, so glad you enjoyed the episode on vision boards! I hope you have as much with yours as I had with mine. I love that mine is within sight whenever I’m at my desk.