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Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Where does perfectionism trip you up?

September 27, 2019 By Janine Adams 5 Comments

How does perfectionism get in your way?I think about perfectionism a lot. It’s the topic of the podcast I co-host with my friend and life coach Shannon Wilkinson every week. But lately I’ve been thinking about it particularly in relation to genealogy, since I’m working on my RootsTech talk next year, called “The Imperfect Genealogist.”

I have about ways perfectionism can cause genealogists to stall in their research. Here are a few examples:

  • You don’t know how to do source citations correctly, so you don’t do them at all.
  • You haven’t come up with the perfect way to organize your research, so you just keep doing research without organizing it.
  • You don’t have a whole weekend to devote to your genealogy research, so you don’t do any
  • You don’t know the very best way to preserve your archival documents, so you let them languish in an unsafe, non-archival environment (we discussed this very thing on Episode 20 of Getting to Good Enough.)

It’s your turn. You guys always provide such great insights I thought I’d ask you. Does perfectionism ever get in the way of your genealogy life? If so, please share what things you tend to get perfectionistic about and the impact it can have. (If you’ve figured out strategies for getting past that, I’m all ears!) Just leave a comment on this post. I’d sure appreciate your help. I’m sure you’ll contribute things I haven’t even thought of!

Edited to add: I wrote this post after I installed a new firewall on my site but before I learned that the firewall by default blocked comments! If you tried to comment, I apologize. It’s fixed now; please do try again!

Filed Under: Challenges Tagged With: perfectionism, podcasts, research, Shannon Wilkinson

Discussing digital files on Genealogy Happy Hour

February 15, 2019 By Janine Adams 2 Comments

I’m a guest on the most recent episode of Genealogy Happy Hour, published today. I had a great time talking with with hosts Amy Gabrill Lay and Penny Burke Bonawitz about organizing digital files in genealogy research (a favorite topic of mine!).

Genealogy Happy Hour is a fun monthly “genealogy podcast with two blondes and a bottle,” to quote its tagline. It’s mostly about genealogy and a little bit about wine. These are two of my favorite things to talk about (and participate in), so I jumped at the chance to talk with these fun folks when they invited me!

You can listen to Episode 38 here. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed doing it!

Filed Under: Excitement, Genealogy tips Tagged With: electronic files, genealogy happy hour, podcasts, record keeping, technology

I’m a guest on Generations Cafe!

January 4, 2019 By Janine Adams 3 Comments

Do you listen to Amy Johnson Crow’s excellent podcast Generations Cafe? If you have read my blog for awhile, you know I’m a big fan of Amy’s. (Here’s her How They Do It interview on this blog from 2017.) She started her podcast in September and I’ve really enjoyed listening to it. So when she asked me to be a guest, to talk about genealogy organizing, I jumped at the chance!

The episode was published on Wednesday and I am really happy with how it turned out. If you haven’t already (I know Amy has a HUGE audience, so you may already be aware of it), please check it out by clicking on this link or subscribing to Generations Cafe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thank you, Amy, for the opportunity to talk with you and your listeners!

Filed Under: Excitement, Genealogy tips Tagged With: amy johnson crow, excitement, learning opportunities, podcasts

Generations Cafe: A new podcast from Amy Johnson Crow

September 22, 2018 By Janine Adams 4 Comments

New podcast from Amy Johnson CrowI’m an unabashed fan of genealogist, writer, and lecturer Amy Johnson Crow. I always jump at the chance to hear her speak at a conference. And I was thrilled when she interviewed me at RootsTech a few years ago. Most recently, I was able hear her speak for two days at the Missouri State Genealogical Society conference in August. In her talks, Amy always delivers solid, well-presented information.

At that conference, she confided in me that she was going to start a podcast. I was happy to hear that because I’m a big fan of podcasts and I know she has so much to share.

That new podcast, Generations Cafe, launched on September 20. Amy has published three episodes so far and they’re excellent. Her podcasts are short and focused. (The first three are between 10 and 15 minutes each.)

Since my own podcast is about getting over perfectionism, I was delighted that the first episode of her podcast was called Is Perfectionism Ruining Your Genealogy? (And I was tickled pink to hear her mention my name in that episode!)

If you don’t love podcasts (or haven’t tried them and are unsure), definitely check out the Generations Cafe posts on Amy’s website because for each episode she has written an accompanying blog post that provides, in written form, the information that is shared in the podcast.

I’m very excited to see what Amy will be exploring and her podcast will definitely be on my list of must-listens!

 

 

Filed Under: Excitement, Genealogy tips Tagged With: amy johnson crow, excitement, learning opportunities, podcasts

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about me

I'm Janine Adams, a professional organizer and a genealogy enthusiast. I love doing family history research, but I find it's very easy for me to get overwhelmed and not know where to turn next. So I'm working hard to stay organized and feel in control as I grow my family tree.

In this blog, I share my discoveries and explorations, along with my organizing challenges (and solutions). I hope by sharing what I learn along the way I'll be able to help you stay focused and have fun while you do your research, too.

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Speaker Badge: Rootstech 2017

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