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!

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.

I am so ready for a 30 x 30 challenge to kick off the new year. Who is with me in committing to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research (or organizing) each day for 30 days, starting tomorrow? I know that I’m much more likely to do daily research when I have this accountability. And one of my goals for 2022 is to research every day.

I’ll be working on preparing for the 1950 census release on April 1, as well as processing the (gulp) 78 files I have in my backlog. I created a little spreadsheet on December 26, when I had 88 files in my backlog and have slowly been whittling it down. During those five days, I downloaded seven documents and processed 17. My hope is that, little by little, the backlog will be eliminated by the end of the month. I’ve worked every day for the past five days and have been getting into a groove that I hope will carry me right into the new year and beyond.

If you’d like to join me for this simple challenge, please let me know in the comments. I’ll create a check-in post mid-month and at the end and we can all let one another know how it’s going.

Happy new year! Looking forward to a new year of fun research!