It’s January 1. Happy new year!
There’s nothing like a new year to make me want to start up a new 30 x 30 challenge, in which I challenge myself to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research each day for 30 days. My last 30 x 30 challenge was in October 2018 and in the wrap-up post for that, I said I’d offer it up again in January. Do you care to join me?
I love this challenge because it’s not too difficult, but it is very beneficial. Doing a half hour of research a day is not a hardship (for me, anyway) most days. And the challenge makes me prioritize daily research. Otherwise, it can fall lower on my list of priorities and then it just doesn’t happen. In fact, my November and December were not great for my research, though I was able to pick it up again over the holidays.
I find daily research to be really beneficial. For me, 15 hours of research split over 30 days is much more valuable than a weekend of research where I work 7.5 hours a day. By researching this way, I stay in touch with my research and I stay focused. It also has helped me ingrain a habit of using my Evernote research log.
Please let me know in the comments if you’re up for joining me in this challenge. It’s a great way to start the new year!
I’m in on the challenge for January!
Terrific!!
Sounds like a great way to get a head start this year. Thank you.
Fantastic, Carol. Welcome!
I’m joining! My 30 minutes each day will be tackling my rootsmagic tree (which was sync’d from Ancestry) one ancestor at a time, looking for “junk” to clean out, normalizing names and places. I just have to start. The goal is to then go out and clean up the public online trees.
I’m also doing the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge this year, so that’ll be a challenge!
Good luck with your 30×30!
By the way, I’m Joy/Savannahzmomma, who has been following and commenting for a few years now. I’m shifting my focus to recording my family stories, so I will show up this way more often, I bet. It’s all the same old lady. I haven’t figured out why I’m sometimes one identity or the other! Sorry about being confusing! I’ll figure it out.
Joy, I love a systematic approach like that os you don’t have to worry about to work on. Good luck with the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, too! I was just hearing about that on Amy’s podcast. It sounds great.
I’m with you, I’m so behind as to where I want to be – I need a CHALLENGE!!
Welcome! I hope this challenge proves really helpful!
Sounds like a good idea to me.
Excellent!
I’m in! Going to work on chipping away at scanning and organizing all the loose papers I have in each family line!
Excellent, Chris. That’s a great focus for your month!
I’m in! This sounds like a great start to a new year!
Fantastic, Rebecca. Welcome to the challenge!
I am looking forward to getting back to my 30 minutes a day. I was doing fine until Thanksgiving and than things just took over my genealogy schedule. I spent the last couple of days setting my genealogy goals/tasks for 2019. I put my goals in Evernote and than when I am ready to actual work on some specific goal/task I put it into Trello.
I want to start using Evernote but I’m curious about your use of Trello. The app seems directed to group project efforts rather than individual. How do you use it?
Jerry, I’d love to hear more about how you use Trello for genealogy. Nadine, I use Evernote for genealogy, but I use Trello a lot for my organizing business. I do have a couple of boards I share with my employee, but most of them are private. It can definitely be used by individuals, rather than groups.
So glad you’ve joined the challenge, Jerry. Your effort is always inspiring! (And, like Nadine, I’d love to hear about how you use Trello or your genealogy research.)
Thanks both to Nadine and Janine for your comments. As mentioned in my post, I use Evernote (Premium) for my goals/tasks. Also, if I come across something of interest in my genealogy research I put it into Evernote (filed by surname) versus having scrapes of paper.
I use Trello to keep me focused on tasks on hand and it helps me to not go down rabbit holes. My Trello has various boards Genealogy To Do and various Surname Boards. When I start doing one of my goals/task that I listed on Evernote, I input the task into my Trello Genealogy To Do Board. The To Do board is broken down by To Do, Working On, and Completed. Also, my Surname Boards are broken down by the same titles. If in my research to complete one of the tasks and I come across something that I need to research further, I will be that into the To Do Item under a Surname Board. I probably could do everything under Evernote, but I find that having specific tasks in Trello helps me to stay focused. Hope my comments aren’t to confusing. I have been using Evernote and Trello for the past year and I will make future adjustments in my workflow.
Thank you, Jerry! That’s very clear to me. I do the same this with tasks in Trello. I just haven’t done it with my genealogy tasks. I might give it a try. I appreciate your spelling it out!
I was reluctant to try this until I read your comment about working on it for a little time each day allows you to “stay focussed in touch with your research.” I have never been consistent about working on my family history and when I do I’m unfocused and need to “bring myself up to speed.” Consequently, I hop all around among family lines which is unproductive. My focus right now is to create and maintain an electronic filing system and your recent post about it was helpful in directing me on how to do that. It’s a big task and I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed about getting through it. So 30 minutes a day could be the answer!
Welcome to the challenge, Nadine. You can do this!!
I’m in. I’m new to your page and glad I found you.
I’m glad you’re here!
I am just listening to the Podcast you did with Amy Johnson Crow. 🙂 I am definitely in for this challenge, however, looks like I need to do 1 hour today to make up for yesterday! 😉
Welcome to the challenge, Jan! You can start today and end on the 31st, if you’d like!
I’m in again, too! I already did my 30 minutes today and yesterday 🙂 So far it is “only” checking the hints on Ancestry and reading all the stored newsletters I received and never found time to read. Thanks for keeping us engaged, Janine. Have a fantastic happy 2019!!
Excellent, Barbara! So glad you have you join. I hope your 2019 is amazing!
I am going to try, so far not a good start, but with family having all left now, I will try hard. I think I will devote my time to continuing with transcribing and scanning some old letters. 30 minutes is probably the maximum time I can spend at any one sitting trying to decipher the faded writing.
Welcome to the challenge! 30 minutes feels like a long time when you’re transcribing! But 30 minutes at a time will make a huge difference!
Thanks for the prompt, Janine. Think I will spend my 30 mins eàch day on my Legacy sourcing and tidying Evernote folders. Hopefully I will at least feel a little more organized for the rest of the year!
Excellent, Maureen. That’s a great way to start the year!
My goal is organizing my “loose” research. Tonight my goal was 30 minutes going through a stack of papers. Well almost 2 hrs later I feel good about where my research is heading at the moment. I organized my stacks by families, threw away duplicates, wrote a few citations, made a list of research questions, and wrote letters to several family members with the info they have requested from me. The stack is half the size! My problem is I go out of town almost every week to help out my parents. While there I always do some research or record another family story….and then it is added to the pile. I feel I should almost put myself on no more new research for the next 30 days. Almost like my resolution for no soft drinks for the next 30 days.
Welcome to the challenge, Audrey! I have done that–not allowed myself to download any new documents until my backlog was taken care of–and it was really effective. But recording family stories is something that you might not want to put on the back burner–how I wish I had recorded stories when I had the chance. 🙂 I encourage you to keep up the great progress with your backlog and don’t add to it–if you do come home with more research or stories process them, rather than adding them to the pile!
So I’m just finding out about this challenge on the 3rd of January and I have a little catching up to do. I am spending spare bits of down time at work setting up my Evernote research log which I read about on your blog. I have not been happy with any other research log I have tried, so I am hopeful that this Evernote one will work for me. I use Evernote ALL the time for other tasks and am familiar with it.
I agree that 30 minutes daily can be beneficial. I find that if I let too much time to go by, it takes forever to get up to speed with my genealogy. I really need the structure and support of a challenge like this…I am revved up and ready to go!!!
Christy, I hope you find Evernote an easy way to log research your research. It’s worked for me, mostly because it’s free form. By big advice is let it be easy (whatever that looks like for you). Welcome to the challenge! I hope you benefit from frequent research as much as I do.
Janine, I was wondering. Will there be any check-ins or encouragement along the way? Or are we on our own? I’m getting a lot done. Rather than researching new items, I am spending my half-hours by cleaning up my Ancestry.com database so that I can start using RootsMagic afresh after I order it. I am working hard!
I’m glad to hear your month is going well! That sounds like a great use of time. To answer your question, I usually do a check in mid month. So look for it on Tuesday the 15th.
Great! Thanks for moderating this challenge, Janine. I am loving it!
Happy New Year!!!! I am three days late, but I’m doing this challenge as well this month. I also did the challenge last January, so it has now become my genealogy tradition to start the new year with the 30X30 challenge. I will be researching my great grandfather for 30 minutes a day for the next 30 days. Wish me luck.
I love that tradition, Trisha! Enjoy learning about your great grandfather this month!
This is an amazing idea. Although I am starting a few days late, I will make it up over the next 30 days. Thank you for this inspiration!
Fantastic! I’m glad you found the challenge!
Late in replying, and first time posting, but I did jump in on the first of the month. My focus is on trying to wrap up a DAR project for my wife’s aunt. I’m so close to finishing–maybe I’ll get to the finish line in January!
Excellent! I hope your short and frequent sessions will take you across the finish line!
Yes please!
You’re in, Lee-Ann! Welcome!