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Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Quick Tip #11: Process each document as you download it

December 4, 2020 By Janine Adams 2 Comments

Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. When I don’t do what I suggest in this tip, I always regret it!

Process each document as you download it

I am always battling a backlog of documents I’ve downloaded that need to be processed. By “processed” I mean creating a source citation, going through the document and gleaning facts and adding them to my Reunion database, with each fact sharing a source citation. (I describe how I process a document in this post.)

I love processing documents, actually. But when I’m in a flurry of searching, I sometimes keep downloading without processing. (Though I always rename the document, as described in Quick Tip #1.) When I let that backlog build up, I end up trying to stop myself from doing additional research until I get rid of it. I often accomplish that during a 30 x 30 challenge.

But when I’m on my game, I process as I go and it feels great. (It makes me feel like a researcher, not just a searcher.) I encourage you to give it a try if you’re not already doing it!

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Filed Under: Challenges, Genealogy tips Tagged With: electronic files, organizing aids, quick tips, time management

Comments

  1. Carol Sooter says

    December 4, 2020 at 8:36 am

    Words for the wise (or those that wanna be wise). I already filed my docs under the proper surname folder; therefore when I process the doc, I have no way of knowing what I’ve processed or not-don’t do that! OK, probably no one has done that, only me!

    Reply
    • Janine Adams says

      December 4, 2020 at 10:35 am

      I hear you! I doubt you’re not the only one! That’s one reason I don’t file a document until I’ve processed it. I also paste the source citation in the Comments field of the Get Info screen (on my Mac) as a clue that I’ve processed it.

      Reply

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about me

I'm Janine Adams, a professional organizer and a genealogy enthusiast. I love doing family history research, but I find it's very easy for me to get overwhelmed and not know where to turn next. So I'm working hard to stay organized and feel in control as I grow my family tree.

In this blog, I share my discoveries and explorations, along with my organizing challenges (and solutions). I hope by sharing what I learn along the way I'll be able to help you stay focused and have fun while you do your research, too.

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