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January 30 x 30 wrap up

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Another 30 x 30 challenge is behind us. Did it help you get more genealogy research or genealogy organizing done? Please share in the comments!

I had a good month. I missed two days but did research the other 28 days. On four of those days, my research consisted of attending Amy Johnson Crow’s All About Ancestry webinars, which were 90 minutes to two hours long, so that helped with my daily average. Over the course of the month, I averaged 44 minutes a day for a total of 22 hours of research. That feels great!

One of my goals was to eliminate my backlog of downloaded documents I needed to process. On January 1, I had 77 documents in the backlog. During the month, I downloaded 23 new documents and processed a total of 90 documents, leaving me with a backlog of 10 documents still to process. Hooray! I had a lot of fun and learned a lot about my ancestors.

If you participated in the challenge, please leave a comment. Did the challenge help you get more done than you otherwise would have? Are you pleased with your progress?

I’ll probably do another challenge in March, so keep an eye out!

January 30 x 30 mid-month check in

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It’s (past) the middle of the month and it’s time for those of us doing the 30 x 30 challenge to check in and report on how it’s going! I haven’t missed a day, but I have had some days where I was not able to do a full 30 minutes of research. But my average is above 30 minutes a day (so far this month) because I was able to put in a couple of long sessions.

Last night I remembered at bedtime that I hadn’t researched, so I snuck in 15 minutes and processed a newspaper article from my backlog of unprocessed documents. My backlog, which numbered 88 on December 25, now stands at 28. I’m getting there!

One of the reasons I’ve been successful with this challenge is that on January 13 I tested positive for COVID. I’m vaccinated and boosted and I caught Omicron. My symptoms were mild (I felt crappy only one day) but I was required to isolate in the house for five days. It meant I had to cancel client appointments and a trip to Walla Walla so I’ve had lots of time at my computer. It’s been refreshing to be able to focus on my research! (That was definitely a silver lining about my catching COVID.)

How about you? If you’re one of the three dozen or so people who signed up for the challenge, how’s it going? Please let us know in the comments.

October 2021 30 x 30 wrap up!

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It’s the end of another 30 x 30 challenge and it’s time to share how you did. I’m sorry to say that I did not have a good month. As I mentioned in the mid-month check in, I had trouble remembering in the first half of the month. Things got worse in the second half because I was in Walla Walla visiting my family from October 18 to 28. I had some nice reminiscing time with my father and my aunt, but mostly I was kept so busy with various tasks for them (and my brother) that I did virtually no research. I was able to process a few documents from my backlog on the airplane, but overall, the last half of the month feels like a wash.

But you know what? I’m cutting myself a lot of slack. I was not able to prioritize genealogy research and that’s okay. I know better months are in my future!

If you participated in the challenge, please let us know in the comments how it went. I’m hopeful it went well for you, but there’s no shame in admitting you didn’t have a great month.

I plan to do another challenge in December or in January, depending on how my December looks.

30 x 30 mid-month check in

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We’re at the halfway point of the October 2021 30 x 30 challenge. How is it going?

I have to admit I’m not having a great challenge. I kept forgetting at the beginning of the month, so I missed a couple of days. Then I remembered, but didn’t have time to research much. So I’ve managed to do some research–but nowhere near 30 minutes–all but three days. I have hopes that I’ll have time for some long research sessions in the remainder of the month to make up some of the time. But even if I don’t, I’m pleased that I’ve been able to connect with my research almost daily.

How about you? If you’re participating in the challenge, please let everyone know in the comments how your month is going.