Today’s mind map
Today I had a little time to work on family history research and, once again, I got all tangled up in my head on what to work on. A tiny bit of perfectionism reared its head as I considered the best use of my time.
When I start to feel like this, I frequently get nothing done. And that’s what happened today–no genealogy research has taken place.
But what I did do was this: I got out a blank piece of paper and I did a little mind map, trying to get a big-picture view of my research. I thought about whether it was more important to grow my tree or to have as much information as possible on the ancestors who are already in my tree. (I’m adding only verified ancestors to my tree, but in the system I’ve created for myself it takes only one verified fact for me to enter someone to my family history software.)
In the course of creating the mind map (pictured above), I realized that, right now, I want my focus to be adding ancestors. I’m hoping in 2013 to take one or more research trips and the more ancestors I have on my tree at the time of such a trip, the better. (Or so it feels today.)
Of course, now I’ve run out of time to do any research today. But when I turn my attention to it later this week, I’m hoping the overwhelmed feeling will be gone.
Leave a Reply