Organize Your Family History

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April 30 x 30 challenge: How did it go?

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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.

30 x 30 mid-month check in

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April is whizzing by and we’re more than halfway through our 30 x 30 challenge. How is it going?

I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to research every day, though some days have not been a full 30 minutes. I’ve been laser focused on reducing backlog of downloaded documents to be processed. So far this month I’ve downloaded only one new file, which I processed the same session. I’ve managed to reduce my backlog by more than half. I started with 112 documents and I have 49 documents left.

I’ve been very pleased that I haven’t missed a day, though I wish I had more time to spend on the backlog-busting because I’m finding it very fulfilling. One reason I’m short on research time is that I’ve been spending a lot of time getting my new How I Do It Orderly Roots Guide ready to be published on May 2. According to my spreadsheet, I have averaged 25 minutes, 8 seconds a day. So I’m hopeful I’ll end the month averaging 30 minutes a day.

How about you? Has the challenge helped you make progress toward your goals? Have you been able to research each day? I’d love to hear how it’s going!

 

Trying to stay laser focused this month

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Sample from my genealogy follow up notebookIt’s less than a week in, but I’m really enjoying this month’s 30 x 30 challenge. My goal is to get through as much of my backlog as I can. On April 1, I had 112 files in my backlog waiting to be processed, but many of them are newspaper articles, which come in pairs (a jpg with the whole page and a pdf of the clip). At minimum, therefore, I have 56 source documents to process. In reality, it’s more than that.

I’ve tried this in the past and failed. I would end up allowing myself to do further research if questions came up during the backlog busting. That would slow down the elimination of the backlog, for obvious reasons. But this month, I’m trying very hard not to do any research; I have a laser focus on processing files. (By that, I mean I’m analyzing each document, creating a source citation and attaching it to all the facts I glean from a document.)

I created a note in my Evernote research log called, “Follow ups from April 30 x 30 backlog busting.” And when I come across further research I need to do, I note it there. That’s a picture of it above. Like the rest of my research log, my follow-up notes are very casual.

My intention is to turn my focus to this follow-up note when this month’s 30 x 30 is over. I’ve set a reminder in Evernote to look at that note on May 1. (I felt like a genius when I thought of the reminder!)

In six days, I’ve processed 25 documents. If I can keep this pace up I should be able to get rid of my backlog by the end of the month. I’m feeling really productive and I’m really enjoying myself. I think the key, right now, is my determination to not add new documents. Of course, if I don’t succeed, I’ll cut myself a ton of slack because I know that any progress I make is good.

I hope your 30 x 30 is going just as well!

Time for another 30 x 30 challenge!

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It’s that time again! I need a 30 x 30 challenge so badly because I barely got any genealogy research done in March. I love how a 30 x 30 challenge vaults research to the top of my daily task list.

Who would like to join me in committing to doing at 30 minutes of research a day for 30 days? (You’re welcome to customize the challenge in any way…it’s your challenge.) We’ll start on April 1.

In February’s challenge, I worked on checking the sources in my source documentation list and in the process added significantly to my backlog of documents to be processed. So this month, I’m going to focus on reducing that backlog. And I’m committing to process any new documents during the session I download them (because sometimes you have to do a little clarifying research when you’re busting the backlog). As I have in the past, I’ll keep a spreadsheet of my progress, so I can feel good about it (and, I hope, not feel overwhelmed).

Let me know in the comments if you’d like to join me! I’ll be posting a mid-month and end-of-the-month check in where we can share how it’s going. Here’s to a great month of research!