Sunday marks the half-way point in our February 30 x 30 challenge, but I though I’d start the check-in a little early. If you are participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, now’s your chance to give us an update in the comments.

I’ve had a good month so far. I’ve researched every day. (I started on January 30, actually, so I’d get 30 days in by the end of February.) Typically, my goal for a 30 x 30 challenge is to do 30 minutes of genealogy research for 30 days in a row. But this time I decided to cut myself some slack. Instead of 30 minutes a day, my goal is to get through 30 source citations in my source documentation checklist. I’m going through my sources in numerical order and checking to make sure that all the information I now put into a source is there (spoiler alert: so far all the source records have lacked information). Also, I’m looking at each source record to see whether I gleaned all the possible information I could from it (not usually). When I set the goal of going through 30 source citations in 30 days I figured that would be very easy to achieve.

It’s not exactly going as planned. I started this 30 x 30 by checking Source 91. Now, 14 days later, I am on Source 98. For a number of the sources, I needed to do some further research in order to verify the information. And you know what? That’s just fine with me. In my research log each day, I’ve written down the next steps I need to do before I’m comfortable moving on to the next source. Since I’m looking at early sources (documents downloaded in 2012 when I was quite new to serious genealogical research), the going is slower. It should pick up when I get to later sources.

Will I manage to get 30 sources by the end of the month? Maybe. But as long as I’m putting in at least some effort each day, I will feel very satisfied. And I’m really enjoying the work. One of the things I love about this challenge is that we can each set our own rules and our own standards for satisfaction.

So please tell me: How’s your personal 30 x 30 challenge going so far?

Happy new year! I just love turning a calendar page to a new year. It feels particularly good to say goodbye to 2020 and all its trials and tribulations. But before we do, let’s talk about the December 2020 30 x 30 challenge. How did it go for you?

December is a tough month for a challenge, I know, because there are often so many holiday- and end-of-the-year-related activities. So bravo to those of you who were up for a challenge. I did pretty well the first half of the month, but slipped a little the second half. Here’s my excuse: After 21 years with our old bed, my husband and I finally bought a new one. We went from a queen- to a king-sized bed. What does this have to do with anything? The need to wedge that large bed into our small bedroom produced a cascading array of tasks that kept me very busy! But it was worth it. The new, fancy Sleep Number bed is fantastic.

In any case, I think I researched only 23 of the 30 days. But I’m still glad for the challenge because I know I would not have been able to accomplish that much research without it.

It’s a new year, so I’ll be creating a fresh research log and working on my research goals for 2021. I’ll probably have another 30 x 30 challenge in February. (Though I guess it will be a 30 x 28 challenge.)

Please share: How was this month’s challenge for you? Did you find that December was a tough month to fit in research or was that not relevant? I’d love to hear from you!

P.S. Thanks very much to those of you who have already taken advantage of my End-of-the-Year Sale on Orderly Roots guides. If you haven’t bought the guides yet (but want to), you have until Sunday evening to get all three for the price of one!

Here it is, December 15 already. We’re halfway through this 30 x 30 challenge. How’s it going?

I can tell you with certainty that if it weren’t for the challenge I’d be getting a lot less research done. I have researched every day except two (when I forgot or just plum ran out of time). It’s been a busier-than-expected month and I haven’t squeezed in 30 minutes every session. But I’m pleased with my consistency. And I’m hopeful I’ll have some time for a long session where I can make up the difference so that I’ll at least have averaged 30 minutes a day. I’m pleased to say that my backlog has grown only a tiny bit this month! I’ve been better about processing documents in the session I download them.

How about you? If you signed on to the challenge, has it been helpful? Are you getting in your 30 minutes in (and being kind to yourself if you’re not)?

I look forward to reading your comments!