Search Results for: 30 x 30 challenge

September went by so quickly and, according to my research log, I  researched only about six times. So I’m declaring a 30 x 30 challenge for October 2021. I need the accountability of publicly committing to 30 minutes of genealogy research a day for 30 days in a row. I have a crazy work day on October 1. So I’m going to start on October 2 and finish on Halloween.

It might be a bit challenging because in October I’ll be traveling to visit my father, brother and aunt in Walla Walla, Washington. But I find that being with family always reminds me of my genealogy research, so I should be okay.

Who would like to join me? If you’re up for the challenge, please let me know in the comments!

Oh my goodness, do I need a 30 x 30 challenge. After a dismal June challenge, my research did not pick up pace in July. So I’m declaring a 30 x 30 challenge for August 2021. During this coming month my goal is to spend 30 minutes a day for 30 days in a row doing genealogy research. If I average 30 minutes, that will be good enough. (I keep a spreadsheet that calculates my average.)

I find that daily research is so beneficial–it keeps my ancestors top of mind and makes it so much easier to dive right in. When I don’t have a challenge going, unfortunately, sometimes genealogy plummets on my priority list. So I’m thrilled to rev up again.

Would you care to join me? If so, please say so in the comments. Feel free to share what you intend to work on (genealogy research, genealogy organizing, a specific project or goal). About halfway through the month, I’ll do an update post and invite you to let everyone know how it’s going for you.

This is the boost I need!

It’s the last day of April and the last day of this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, in which we tried to do 30 minutes of genealogy-related activity every day for 30 days. If you participated, please share: how did it go?

I had an extraordinarily good month. Perhaps because I was so focused on genealogy as I was getting my new guide ready to to publish next week, I actually worked on my genealogy research every single day! I averaged 30 minutes a day (33 minutes 34 seconds, to be precise) for the month, though some sessions were as short as five minutes.

My goal this month was to get through my backlog of unprocessed documents. I came so close! I started the month with 112 documents in my backlog and I now have 10. And those I think I can knock out by Monday. One of the reasons I was able to do it was my vow not to add to my backlog by downloading more documents. I did download nine documents over the course of the month, but they were necessary in order to make connections that allowed me to process the documents in my backlog. I kept a follow up note in my research log for clues to follow up on after this challenge is over, which helped a lot.

I kept a spreadsheet (in Numbers on my Mac), which I found very motivating. It allowed me to see how close I was getting to my goal of eliminating my backlog and my goal of spending an average of 30 minutes a day researching. Here’s a screenshot, in case it’s of interest. (Click on it to make it larger.)

The spreadsheet really illustrates how you can chip away at a backlog little by little. I intend to process the remaining 10 documents in my backlog and I’m going to try hard to process documents the same session I download them so I don’t build up another backlog.

I’m feeling great about my month and I hope you are too! Please let me know in the comments how your challenge went and whether you found it beneficial.