Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

The value of daily research

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The benefits of dailiy genealogy researchI know some of you work on genealogy research every day. But I think the majority of folks are like I once was. I’d wait until I had a free day or half day on the weekend before I’d do any research. And sometimes when that day finally came I’d be paralyzed with all the choices of things to research and very slow to start. Very occasionally, I wouldn’t get anything done because I couldn’t decide!

This year, I’ve been trying hard to research daily. As I mentioned in my last post introducing a new 30 x 30 challenge, I haven’t missed a day since August 1. That feels great.

It got me thinking about some of the advantages to short, frequent research sessions over long, infrequent ones. Here’s what I came up with.

  1. I’m more connected with my ancestors. Because I’m thinking about them every single day, I don’t have to review everything in order to get started.
  2. I forget less. In addition to researching daily I’m also keeping a very informal research log in Evernote that helps me stay on top of what I’ve researched.
  3. I keep a “next steps” list in my  research log so I know exactly what to work on when I sit down to research in the morning. Overwhelm and paralysis is a thing of the past!
  4. I stay focused. I don’t have the luxury of going down rabbit holes when my timer is going and I know I’ll have to stop before long. This does a great job of keeping me focused. When I’m tempted to get distracted, I just add the bright shiny object to my genealogy task list.
  5. I’ve created a habit! Doing 30 minutes of genealogy research is a great way to start the day. It used to be I’d forget to research. No more. It’s part of my routine and I love it.
  6. It’s easier for me to find 30 minutes a day (3.5 hours a week) than a weekly half day or biweekly full day to research. Taking a whole weekend once a month feels pretty much impossible. I still love having longer sessions–it’s truly a special day when I spend the whole day researching. (Thankfully, I have had a few of those this year.) But daily research means that researching is getting done without my feeling like I’m sacrificing other things.

I really do enjoy longer sessions and I consider those a bonus. This year’s daily research, which is usually a minimum of 30 minutes, means that 2017 will be my most productive year yet when it comes to family history research. And from a time perspective, it’s been really easy!

Let’s start a November 30 x 30 challenge!

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How’d you like to join me in committing to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research for the 30 days of November? I think November is a particularly great month for a 30 x 30 challenge, at least for those of us in the United States, since it’s the month of the Thanksgiving holiday, when many families get together. What better time to do some research in anticipation of asking questions of family members or sharing findings with them?

I’ve been doing periodic 30 x 30 challenges since August 2015. They’ve really helped me stay focused on my research. I love the public accountability and support. And I’ve learned they help create a habit of daily research. This one’s for you, not for me, because–believe it or not–I’ve been researching daily since my August 2017 challenge! That’s three months in a row without missing a day. I feel like it’s become a wonderful habit; I absolutely love starting my day with genealogy research.

I’d love to support you in a 30 x 30 challenge this month so that you can experience the joy of creating this habit. Who wants to join me?

Some time in the next couple of weeks, I’ll write a post about the benefits of brief, daily research…it’s really quite different from the sporadic, longer sessions I used to do in the past.

Just post a comment if you’d like to join the challenge!

The end of the August 30 x 30 challenge

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It’s August 30, which means that the 30 days of the August 30 x 30 challenge are up. How’d the challenge work out for those of you who participated? I hope that you made strides you wouldn’t have otherwise made.

I’m happy to report that I had an excellent month. I hate to say it out loud for fear of jinxing it, but I feel like doing genealogy research first thing in the morning is becoming a habit! I’ve been getting up a little early to make time for it.  And I get started without any resistance. I have to say, it’s really a wonderful way to start the day!

I’ve also been able to create a habit of keeping a (very simple) research log, in Evernote. And as part of that logging, I always right down next steps. When I start my morning research, I consult my next steps, so I’ve been staying on track. Not once all month did I ask myself that overwhelming question, “What should I work on today?”

Tomorrow I’m going to go through the month’s next steps and compile a list of those steps I haven’t yet taken. I’m also going to take a look at a similar list I made at the end of July and see if there are some undone tasks there.

I know that having a 30 x 30 challenge has kept me on track. I’m going to try to continue the daily research in September without one. (I do have a week-long trip that might make that challenging.) If I’m not able to keep up with it, you can be sure that I’ll start a new 30 x 30 challenge in October!

Please report in and let me know how you did with your challenge, if you’d decided to participate. Even if you didn’t tell me you were participating, I’d love to know if the existence of the challenge was in any way motivating!

30 x 30 challenge: Mid-month check in

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We’re 18 days into the August 2017 30 x 30 challenge, in which participants are trying to do 30 minutes of research (or organizing or anything else genealogy related) for 30 days. How are things going?

I’m delighted to report that I’ve not missed a day of research. This feels especially good because this past week I had a huge team organizing project–a whole-house transformation that took my team and me four full-day sessions to complete. I had to leave the house at 7:15 am most days and didn’t get home until after 6. But I got up a little earlier than I otherwise would to get my research in. On a couple of days I did just ten minutes of research to get the ball rolling and finished the other 20 minutes in the evening.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: Since I’ve been too busy to do research for more than 30 minutes at a time much of this month, I find that I’m staying a lot more focused. I don’t have to worry about falling down the rabbit hole of chasing shiny objects, because I just don’t have time. Instead, when I come across something new, I take a note of it in my research log so I can check it later. Every morning, the first thing I do when I start my research is check the log, so I’ve been able to stay focused.

How about you? Nine readers jumped on the bandwagon in the comments when I posted the challenge on August 1. How’s it going? Have you been able to keep it up? If you missed a day, did you go right back? I’d love to hear about your successes and about any challenges I might be able to help with!