It’s May 1, which means that the April 30 x 30 challenge ended yesterday. How did it go for you?

My month went well, though I missed three days. I was going along just fine until I left town for a conference for professional organizers. I just plain forgot to do research one day! Another day, while at the conference, I started to do research, but my heart wasn’t in it. And then yesterday, my first day home, was hectic and I didn’t manage to do any research.

So I researched (or organized) 27 out of 30 days. I’m okay with that.

One thing I noticed, as I have before, is that I’m best off if I work on my genealogy in the morning, preferably before I walk my dog. If I leave it until the end of the day, I’m sometimes too tired or unmotivated.

Another thing that happened is that I started feeling overwhelmed by my backlog of downloaded documents to be processed. Some were deeds that I’d found on microfilm at the Family History Library and copied to a flash drive. Typically, the unprocessed files hang out in my Surnames folder, as loose files. Since they all start with a date, they rise to the top, above the individual surname folders.

So many deeds had accumulated (I counted 29!) that I was overwhelmed. I created a folder called *Deeds to be processed. (The asterisk puts the folder above the surname folders.) I moved all the deeds into that folder, then moved one at a time out of that folder, so that it was in the usual place for my backlog of documents. A deed stayed there until I finished transcribing it and extracting information. Then I moved the deed and its transcription to the appropriate person folder. (You can read more about my digital workflow…the point of all this is that I created a temporary folder to corral the deeds that were overwhelming me.)

I’m trying hard not to do new research until my backlog is finished. The deeds are a little tedious but they’re providing some great insights, so I’m grateful to be working on them.

Enough about me. If you participated in the 30 x 30 challenge, how did it go? If you didn’t participate or had to cut out early, rest assured I’ll be having another one before too long.

We’re halfway through April and a good number of you said you were going to participate in the April 30 x 30 challenge in which we vow to do something genealogy-related for 30 minutes each day throughout the 30 days of the month.

How’s it going? Have you been able to make that daily effort? Is it paying dividends?

I haven’t missed a day yet, I’m happy to say, but I haven’t been able to do much more than 30 minutes either. Because I have a backlog of documents to process, it feels like a little bit of drudgery, I’m afraid. But I know I’ll get through it, even if all I can do is work on it 30 minutes at a time.

I’m going to spend some time thinking about how to deal with the backlog without it feeling like drudgery and I plan to blog about that soon.

If you’re participating in the 30 x 30 challenge (or would like to), please comment and let us know how it’s going!

Time to start a new 30 x 30 challenge! Would you like to join me in committing to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research (or organizing genealogy research, or doing anything genealogy related) every day for 30 days? We’ll start on April 1 and end on April 30.

I’d been doing really well with daily research for seven months, into late March. But then my father had a health crisis, which caused me to drop everything and travel to Washington state. He’s fine now, but I stuck around to take him to follow up appointments and make sure he’s okay. I’ve been here almost a week and haven’t had an opportunity to do any research at all. So a 30 x 30 challenge will help me get back into the groove. I return home on April 2 and I’ll do my best to get some research time in on April 1. (I’m hampered here by the fact he doesn’t have wifi in his condo.)

Who’s in? If you’d like to join the challenge, make a comment below. Feel free to share what your commitment is; customize the challenge so it works for you. For me, I’ll either research or organize my research in those 30 minutes daily.

For those of you who participated in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, in which you committed to doing 30 minutes of genealogy-related activity for 30 days in a row, how’d it go?

I actually missed a day, for the first time since August 1. I typically research first thing in the morning but on Saturday I had to be up and out of the house to get to the Apple store when it opened (my phone had died) and then the rest of the day went by in a blur and I forgot to research. So that speaks to the power of daily routine. I’m definitely best off if I can research in the morning and I try to plan the time I wake up around it. (That Saturday I couldn’t get myself to get up earlier, because I’d had a late night the night before.)

So that’s my true confession. How did the rest of you do? Even if you weren’t able to do 30 days in a row, was the effort at least beneficial? I’d love to hear!