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30 x 30 wrap up

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My March 30 x 30 challenge ended yesterday. I challenged myself to do 30 minutes of genealogy research every day for 30 days (in this case, March 1 to 30). Some of you said you’d join me.

For me, this was a successful challenge! As in my November 2016 30 x 30 challenge, I spent a lot of time transcribing. I will say that having a project like that makes the challenge easier because it was always there for me to turn to. But it wasn’t completely about the transcribing. Here’s what I accomplished:

  • I did at least 30 minutes of research for probably 28 days (a couple of days I forgot!).
  • I transcribed 24 documents in the Civil War pension file of my 2nd great grandfather, George Washington Adams (1845-1938).
  • I abstracted six documents in that pension file.
  • I made a few breakthroughs in researching that 2nd great grandfather’s second family.
  • I managed to stay focused on the Adams family, my goal for 2017.
  • I remembered to log each of my sessions! (Full disclosure: For the transcriptions, I counted checking off a document on my checklist logging.) I feel like I’m slowly building up the research log habit.

I can tell you in all sincerity that if it weren’t for this challenge, a fraction of those things would have been accomplished. Some days I just didn’t feel like thinking about my research, but because of the challenge, I pulled out that pension file and started transcribing. It has 138 documents and I’ve transcribed 89 if them (almost two-thirds!) and abstracted 31. I still have a ways to go, but thanks to this challenge, the light is starting to shine at the end of the tunnel.

How about you? If you participated in the challenge (or a variation of it), how did it go?

My good enough research log is good enough

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My good enough research logI wrote this post back in January of 2020. This informal logging method has stood the test of time for me. I’m still using it though I’ve moved from Evernote to Apple Notes. It’s not good enough for a professional genealogist but for my hobbyist self it keeps me on track, which is my top priority. I thought I’d repeat the post today. (The Evernote template pictured lasted exactly one month; I don’t use it any longer even during 30 x 30 challenges.)

We’re in the midst of a 30 x 30 challenge this month so I’ve been researching every day. It feels great. I have no more than 30 minutes (sometimes less) to research most days this month, so I rely on my research log to help me start each session.

I’ve blogged before about my research log and its value. This month, because I’m working on my RootsTech talk “The Imperfection Genealogist,” I’ve been reflecting on the fact that my very informal research log is far from perfect. But it’s certainly good enough.

How do I know it’s good enough? It’s because I’m in touch with why I want to keep a research log and the ways I use it. For me, it’s about knowing what I’ve researched in a given session and (perhaps more importantly) what my next steps are. It also tells me at a glance how frequently I’m researching. I keep my research log in Evernote, but I track of all my documents and family tree elsewhere, so I’m not creating source citations or storing documents in my research log. You might have a research log for different reasons. And yours may be very different from mine. And that’s great.

My good-enough research log is an Evernote notebook by year (I started the 2020 research log notebooks ten days ago), pinned as a shortcut in the sidebar. Each time I research, I open the notebook, create a new note with today’s date, and then write in free from what I worked on that day. I write down the questions that come up. I write down any discoveries. And I end the session by writing down the next steps. That way, when I start the next session, whether it’s the next day or the next month, I know where to start. That’s been a huge time saver for me. (I blogged in more detail about my research log in this post. About a year ago, I wrote a post about how my research log keeps me focused.)

This month, I’ve added an Evernote template that allows me to check off that I completed a session and I also add how many minutes I researched, because I’m hoping that I’ll get in 900 minutes in the 30 x 30 challenge, even if I don’t manage 30 minutes in some individual sessions. This is motivating to me, because when I see the checkmarks each day it makes me want to not break the chain. I also jot down in a couple of words what type of work I did. The picture at the top of this post is screenshot of the note that contains the template, which is in addition to my usual daily note but also stored in the 2020 research log notebook. (To get that template, I clicked on New Note, then on Template right in the note, then Habit Tracker in the Template Gallery. That inserted the template into the note and I edited it a bit.)

When I first started contemplating creating a research log in 2012, I could understand its value but I got wrapped up in trying to do it perfectly. Predictably, my first attempts failed. But as soon as I got in touch with what I really wanted out a research log and I made it easy to accomplish, things fell into place. Now, I’m glad to say that I’ve developed a habit of logging my session every day.

A couple of years ago, I created a Facebook group called Genealogy Research Loggers. We’re a pretty quiet group, but if you’d like some help and accountability for creating a research log habit, please join us!

For detailed information on how I organize my own genealogy research (including my research log), check out my Orderly Roots Guide, How I Do It: A Professional Organizer’s Genealogy Workflow, available for $19.99.

January 2024 mid-month check in!

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I can’t believe it’s already January 15. It’s time to check in and let us know how your 30 x 30 challenge is going this month. Have you been able to reach your goal of daily research? If not, have you done more research than you might have done without the challenge? Please chime in in the comments and let us know how it’s going, whether you’ve made any great discoveries and/or how you’re feeling about your progress.

I’m not actually participating in this month’s challenge–I’m taking a little break from genealogy research and focusing on my health and fitness. (Nothing bad is happening, I just want to take it up a notch!) And I’ve done great with that this month. In fact, if you’re curious, you can take a look at the current issue of organizing newsletter, which I just published, which has a picture of this month’s habit tracker and all its glorious checks. And please feel free to subscribe to that newsletter, which is for people who love reading about organizing.

I can’t wait to hear how your 30 x 30 challenge is going!

How you can profit from daily research

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I’m planning to start a new 30 x 30 challenge on January 1. I’ve been doing these challenges periodically for eight years and they’ve been helpful to many people (including me). Come January 1, I’ll be asking you to commit to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research (or genealogy organizing, or really anything you want to commit to) for 30 days in a row. What’s the value of the commitment? If you’ve done a 30 x 30 challenge already, you probably know. But if you haven’t, you might be inspired this post, which I originally wrote on November 3, 2017. Watch for an introductory post to the challenge on New Year’s Day!

The benefits of dailiy genealogy researchI know some of you work on genealogy research every day. But I think the majority of folks are like I once was. I’d wait until I had a free day or half day on the weekend before I’d do any research. And sometimes when that day finally came I’d be paralyzed with all the choices of things to research and very slow to start. Very occasionally, I wouldn’t get anything done because I couldn’t decide!

This year, I’ve been trying hard to research daily. As I mentioned in this introducing a new 30 x 30 challenge, I haven’t missed a day since August 1. That feels great.

It got me thinking about some of the advantages to short, frequent research sessions over long, infrequent ones. Here’s what I came up with.

  1. I’m more connected with my ancestors. Because I’m thinking about them every single day, I don’t have to review everything in order to get started.
  2. I forget less. In addition to researching daily I’m also keeping a very informal research log in Evernote that helps me stay on top of what I’ve researched.
  3. I keep a “next steps” list in my  research log so I know exactly what to work on when I sit down to research in the morning. Overwhelm and paralysis is a thing of the past!
  4. I stay focused. I don’t have the luxury of going down rabbit holes when my timer is going and I know I’ll have to stop before long. This does a great job of keeping me focused. When I’m tempted to get distracted, I just add the bright shiny object to my genealogy task list.
  5. I’ve created a habit! Doing 30 minutes of genealogy research is a great way to start the day. It used to be I’d forget to research. No more. It’s part of my routine and I love it.
  6. It’s easier for me to find 30 minutes a day (3.5 hours a week) than a weekly half day or biweekly full day to research. Taking a whole weekend once a month feels pretty much impossible. I still love having longer sessions–it’s truly a special day when I spend the whole day researching. (Thankfully, I have had a few of those this year.) But daily research means that researching is getting done without my feeling like I’m sacrificing other things.

I really do enjoy longer sessions and I consider those a bonus. This year’s daily research, which is usually a minimum of 30 minutes, means that 2017 will be my most productive year yet when it comes to family history research. And from a time perspective, it’s been really easy!