Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

30 x 30 challenge (June 2024) wrap up

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I know this is a little (a lot!) late. But for those of you who participated in the June 2024 challenge to do 30 minutes of genealogy-related endeavor every day for 30 days, how did it go?

I have to beg forgiveness for ignoring the challenge. We finished moving on June 22 and then my husband was hospitalized on June 24 and I haven’t been able to pay attention to much else. Barry is still in the hospital but we’re very hopeful for an excellent, life-changing outcome. In the meantime, it’s a bit stressful.

I haven’t blogged in any of my blogs since the move. (I have two others, my organizing blog and my budgeting blog.) I did manage to get my organizing newsletter out on the 15th, which felt like an achievement.

All that aside, I do care about your progress! Please let me know in the comments how the challenge worked out for you and whether you’d like to see another one in the near future.

30 x 30 June 2024 challenge: mid-month check-in

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For those of you participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, how’s it going? Were you able to put in 30 minutes a day toward your goal? If not, did you end up doing more than you would have done had you not been doing the challenge?

You’ll recall that my commitment wasn’t for daily genealogy research this month, rather it was to work on getting ready for my move every day. The move is now five days away (gulp), on June 21, and you can bet that I’ve been working on it every day for way more than 30 minutes. I have professional organizers (my team members) coming in to help me pack this week and unpack starting Saturday. So the days in the coming week will be full but they’ll also be very productive.

I’m hopeful that you’ve had a productive month as well! Please let us know in the comments how your challenge is going.

How about a June 30 x 30 challenge?

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Sorry I’ve been writing so infrequently; I’m moving in (gulp) three weeks and have so much to do. But I realized today that I haven’t done a 30 x 30 challenge since January so I’d like to invite you to join me for one. Please comment below if you would like to commit to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research (or organizing or whatever projects suits you) for 30 days in a row in June.

Sadly, I won’t be joining you in the genealogy research. But I commit to putting in at least 30 minutes a day every day editing my belongings, finding homes for those I no longer want and packing those I do! It will probably be a lot more than 30 minutes a day, in fact.

Since I’m not researching as much these days, I used my move as an opportunity to get together with my genealogy buddy, Vickie Sheridan, and gave her my collection of National Genealogical Society Quarterlies and NGS Magazines. That felt great! I gave her a few genealogy books as well. It felt so good to find a good home for them.

Please let me know in the comments if you’re up for the challenge!

Carving out time for your genealogy research

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Ticking clockBack in 2015, I published this post, which I originally published on another of my three blogs, the one on my organizing business’s website, Peace of Mind Organizing. These days I’m trying to blog once a week on each of my blogs. (The third is the blog on my budget coaching website, Peace of Mind Budgeting.) The focuses of the blogs are separate, but occasionally a post written for one can transfer right over to the other.

That’s the case with this post. When perusing my business blog, I realized that a post called Finding time to feed your soul, originally published in 2014, would be great on this blog. So here it is. I hope you find it helpful!

I love doing genealogy research. It’s a fairly big part of my life—I blog twice weekly (most weeks) at my genealogy blog, Organize Your Family History, so I actually think about my family research quite a lot.

But I don’t actually research as often as I’d like. And that’s a shame, because researching my family history feeds my soul.

We’re all busy with the daily activities of life. Throw kids, aging parents, demanding work, needy spouses or sick pets into the mix and sometimes it feels like we don’t have any time to do those things that really nourish us.

I believe that doing those things is really important for self care. So how can we find the time?

Time management is all about managing priorities. If you put everyone’s needs before your own, all you’ll be doing is putting out fires. And that’s not good for you. So I think it’s important to figure out little pockets of time that you can set aside as “me time.” During that special time, you can do that thing that keeps you going and that feeds your soul.

How can you find some pockets of time when you’re already so busy?

  • Get up a half hour early to feed your soul
  • Drop an activity that you’re doing because you think you should, not because you want to
  • If you’re a TV watcher, have a no-TV day each week and put that time toward your desired activity
  • Find people who also do what you want to do (like a knitting group) and agree to do that activity together.
  • Block off time on your calendar for your soul-feeding activity
  • Explain to your family your need to have to time of your own and arrange for a redistribution of chores

The list could go on. Perhaps you just need to be a little creative.

If you’re saying to yourself, I can’t take time out for myself while my house is messy…that’ll have to wait until I get organized then please stop. It breaks my heart when people stop their messy homes from allowing them to live. Sure, work on your home, bit by bit (or hire someone to help you), but reward your efforts with some soul-nourishing activity.

Our lives our important and they should be as happy and fulfilling as possible. I’m a firm believer that we can take control of our time and do those things that bring fulfillment.

Can you make some time for yourself this weekend?

Photo by R.L. Hyde via Flickr

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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.