Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

October 30 x 30 wrap up

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Another 30 x 30 challenge is over! Today marks Day 30. Please share know how it went for you!

I had a great month. I managed to research every day except one. And, according to my spreadsheet, I averaged 30 minutes 12 seconds a day. Some research sessions were longer, some were shorter, but most were around 30 minutes.

My goal for this challenge was to eliminate the backlog of files that had accumulated. I did it! That felt great. However, I discovered other backlog folders that I don’t remember creating. They were filed in individual surname folders. So my backlog is not gone completely. But I did process 77 backlogged documents this month and I downloaded and processed 19 more. That feels very productive and I’m pleased as punch.

I hope to continue with daily research in November, though with the absence of a 30 x 30 challenge it’s less of a sure thing. I’m planning to do another challenge in January.

Your turn: If you participated in the challenge, how did it go? Did the challenge help you get more done? And did you have some fun? I hope so!

Quick Tip #9: Use a timer!

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Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. This is one I use literally every day, in many aspects of my life.

Use a timer to stay focused

It’s so easy to fall down a rabbit hole when you’re researching and the next thing you know hours have passed and it’s past your bedtime (or you’ve missed a meal). Sometimes the likelihood of a long session is enough to stop you from starting a research session altogether.

Setting a timer can really help. It has two benefits: It reminds you to stop when the timer goes off. And knowing the timer will be going off soon is often enough to keep you from falling down that rabbit hole in the first place. When you’re tempted to stray, you can make a note to follow up on later and get back to to your research focus.

I almost always set a timer before a genealogy research session because I usually can’t afford to spend hours on a research session, no matter how enjoyable it is (or badly I want to solve a problem). I use the timer on my iPhone or Apple Watch, but you can ask Google (or Alexa) to set a timer you or use an old-fashioned kitchen timer.

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

October 30 x 30 challenge check in (redux)!

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I posted this on Friday and one reader to wrote to say she was getting an error message when she tried to comment. I’ve been trying to fix it and I think I have finally succeeded. I think there were two sets of problems (a new IP address and an updated plugin) and I’m hopeful you all can comment. So, please, do let me know how your 30 x 30 challenge is going! And if you try to comment and can’t, please shoot me an email at janine@organizeyourfamilyhistory.com and let me know. Thanks!

Update! I got GoDaddy involved and I think it’s really fixed this time. So if you do have a problem, please let me know.

It’s the middle of month already and time for a check in for those who are participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge. How’s it going? Have you been able to research daily? Are you putting in 30 minutes a day? Even if you’re not, have you found the challenge helpful?

It’s been a good, if not great, month for me. When there’s a 30 x 30 challenge my research is definitely more on my radar. I have researched every day, except one, which I feel great about. The one day I missed I had a good excuse: my husband was hospitalized for five nights at the beginning of the month with a heart ailment (he’s doing well now). One of those evenings I just plain forgot to research. But I was proud of myself for remembering the other days! (My Trello daily task management board has been outrageously helpful.)

This month I’ve been focusing on reducing my backlog and until yesterday I was doing great. I started out with 96 documents to process and I have now have 60. Before yesterday, there wasn’t a day that my backlog of documents went up–I’ve been trying hard to resist adding documents. (So far this month, I’ve processed 48 documents and added 12.) But yesterday in order to feel comfortable adding a couple of documents I’d found on last year’s research trip to my database I had to do a little more research and then downloaded four documents that I didn’t have to process.

I have averaged 24 minutes a day, but I hope to bring that average up this weekend. I plan to keep working on my backlog. I have a fighting chance of getting it down to zero, which would be amazing!

How’s it going for you? Please let us know in the comments!

October 30 x 30 challenge check in!

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It’s the middle of month already and time for a check in for those who are participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge. How’s it going? Have you been able to research daily? Are you putting in 30 minutes a day? Even if you’re not, have you found the challenge helpful?

It’s been a good, if not great, month for me. When there’s a 30 x 30 challenge my research is definitely more on my radar. I have researched every day, except one, which I feel great about. The one day I missed I had a good excuse: my husband was hospitalized for five nights at the beginning of the month with a heart ailment (he’s doing well now). One of those evenings I just plain forgot to research. But I was proud of myself for remembering the other days! (My Trello daily task management board has been outrageously helpful.)

This month I’ve been focusing on reducing my backlog and until yesterday I was doing great. I started out with 96 documents to process and I have now have 60. Before yesterday, there wasn’t a day that my backlog of documents went up–I’ve been trying hard to resist adding documents. (So far this month, I’ve processed 48 documents and added 12.) But yesterday in order to feel comfortable adding a couple of documents I’d found on last year’s research trip to my database I had to do a little more research and then downloaded four documents that I didn’t have to process.

I have averaged 24 minutes a day, but I hope to bring that average up this weekend. I plan to keep working on my backlog. I have a fighting chance of getting it down to zero, which would be amazing!

How’s it going for you? Please let us know in the comments!

Join the mailing list!

When you first join the list, I’ll send you a few emails to help you organize your family history. After that you’ll hear from me at the end of every month when I send an email with links to that month’s posts. And every now and then, I’ll let you know when I have something special to promote.