• BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Privacy Policy
  • GENEALOGY GUIDES
    • Orderly Roots guides
      • 10 Secrets to Organizing Your Genealogy Research
      • 10 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started Doing Genealogy
      • Organizing Your Genealogy Right From the Start
    • The Paperless Genealogy Guide
  • SERVICES
  • MAILING LIST
  • CONTACT

Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Where was I?

May 16, 2013 By Janine Adams Leave a Comment

I can use this form to plan my next family history research session

For me, the biggest impediment to starting a research session is not knowing exactly what to work on. Today, I was reading an article on what to do with the last few minutes of the workday and was struck by a suggestion from Julie Morgenstern, a hugely successful professional organizer. She suggests spending a couple of minutes to identify the most important thing you’ll do in the first hour of work the next day.

I do something like this for my work life (I plan the top four priorities for tomorrow), but it occurred to me this could be really useful for my family history research. If, at the end of each research session, I identified a few things to work on in the next session, the question of what to work on would disappear. I’ve flirted with this before, but what struck me today was that I could create a form (I love forms!) that I would fill out at the end of each session and keep it handy for the beginning of the next session.

I have a similar form for my work day (here’s a link to it on Pinterest), so I adapted it for my family history research. It’s pictured on this post. At the top I have the top four research items to work on. At the bottom, I have a checklist of things to make sure I do as I close up the session.

I think this form will go a long way toward getting me past that barrier to getting started. And making it easier to get started will help me carve out little bits of time to do my research.

 

 

Filed Under: Challenges, Organizing Tagged With: getting started, research, time management

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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.

tags

Adams amy johnson crow anniversary Brown cemetery Civil War conferences connections dna electronic files Evernote excitement Family Curator family photos genealogy tools genetic genealogy getting started goals How They Do It Igleheart Jeffries keepsakes learning opportunities maps newspapers NGS organizing aids overwhelm paper files planning podcasts quick tips rasco record keeping research research log research trip resources RootsTech social history source documentation technology Thomas MacEntee time management vital records
Speaker Badge: Rootstech 2017

join the facebook community!

join the facebook community!

My organizing business

Learn more about my organizing business, Peace of Mind Organizing®.

Subscribe by RSS

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Subscribe by email

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email.

© 2021 Janine Adams