ORGANIZING - LET'S BEGIN THE NEW YEAR BY ACCOMPLISHING ONE ORGANIZATIONAL TASK

YIKES! Do you have notes on or around your desk?  I removed these from various notepads that I keep on my desk.  I’ve laid them on display for you to see.  I try to begin each year by doing various organization tasks in my office and around my home.

 

The plan……

• Select a note
• Look at each individual item on the note
• Is this something I need to take action on (research? add to my Legacy database?)
• If so, then take action and cross off the items as I complete them
• THROW THE NOTE AWAY

I’m not a big “paper person.”  I store things digitally and rarely print anything.  I do keep originals of vital records I’ve sent for (after they’ve been scanned and entered in Legacy). I put them in a page protector and then into a binder.

But, honestly, I have to say I rarely order records any more.  Fifteen years ago I did a lot of ordering.  I know there are a couple I need to order this year and I will.

What I’m going to do now is stop writing this post.  I’ll work on these notes one at a time and then I’ll tell you how long it took me to go through them.  It’s currently 10:56 a.m.

Time of completion – 12:18 p.m.  I began with 11 pieces of paper with notes all over them and 8 post-it notes.

I’m done!  It took me 1 hour and 22 minutes.  Here’s what I accomplished and how.

1. I took action on and threw out 11 pieces of paper with notes all over them.

• I either completed a task in Legacy or online. 
• I also created a note in Evernote that was dated today and tagged with “notes from my desk.”  There were only a few things that went into that Evernote note – like Gedmatch numbers I’d written down or a possible DNA connection I need to remember.

2.  I took action on and threw out 8 post-it notes by doing the same thing stated above.

TIP:  There are 3 things that can be done with a piece of paper – act on it, file it or throw it away.

 

Here's my desk now. What a difference from the photo at the top.  

I know you’ve all seen me write about cleaning my desk or office before.  In fact, not long ago I wrote a post about going through the various piles sitting on my desk area.

 

The point is…..we have to continually keep at the task of organization so that it doesn’t get away from us and become an overwhelming task.

As most of you probably know, there's even a Facebook group devoted specifically to this subject The Organized Genealogist.  It's a wonderful group full of ideas and genealogists just like us who need help.

 

I encourage all of you to take that hour and accomplish a specific chore in your own work area.  When you do, please tell me what you did and how it feels to have accomplished the task.  Leave me a comment or send me an email via the contact me tab.

HERE ARE SOME OTHER POSTS I’VE WRITTEN – I hope they’ll inspire you

Office Closet Clean Out - The Finished Product

Are You Getting Off Track?  Losing Your Focus?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

OFFICE CLOSET CLEAN OUT & ORGANIZATION PROJECT–DO YOU HAVE ONE OF “THOSE” SPACES?

If you do have one of “those” spaces, then you are not alone and there is hope.

Recognize any of these items?

• What are those things still doing in my house? 
• Why do I need them? 
• Why do I keep them?

We all love to chase those ancestors.  We can sit for hours at the computer and search, save, record and search some more.

BUT, how do you keep your area, your computer files, your folders, your desk….everything, organized and neat?

Isn’t that the big question?

It is for most of the genealogists I know.  

What I am doing right now is reorganizing my office.  I am fortunate to be able to have a room in our home that is my own little genealogy haven.  However, it doesn’t matter the size of your area, it still must be organized.  How else are you going to be able to find anything?

I was doing pretty well in my office area, but there is a closet in this room too.  And I will confess right now…..IT WAS A HUGE MESS!!  Nearly 20 years of living in this house and using that closet as the catch all for everything.  It took it’s toll  But, hey, if I didn’t open the door then I didn’t have to think about it, right?  WRONG!

I decided this was the year.  That closet was getting cleaned out no matter what.

It began with the emptying of everything from that horrible space.  So much stuff.  Seriously?  Tax records in boxes, going back to 1984.  Old computer books, floppy disks, modems, hard drives, dresses that I didn’t have a space for, old uniforms, you name it, we had it in that closet.  The rest of our home doesn’t look like this, I swear.

Here is a picture of what I’m talking about.  

That space is completely empty now.  Of course, much of it is out in the office area.  But, I have thrown away countless numbers of things that I definitely DO NOT NEED.

Here is the second big bin of trash I have gotten rid of.  The first one was over flowing and this one will be too.



HOW WILL THIS BENEFIT ME AND MY RESEARCH?
1.  You WILL locate items, documents, photos that you have forgotten about.
2.  You WILL be able to locate everything without hunting.
3.  You WILL actually be able to research without the guilt of thinking “gosh, I should be scanning, sorting, cleaning, filing or whatever.”
4.  You will just feel better, more calm and happier.  Unless disorganization is what you like and there are those folks who do.  Nothing wrong with that, it’s how they are comfortable.

Here is what that closet looks like now.



Can I get a big YIPPEEE!!!!

Can you believe the difference?  I painted it a tan color to contrast with the shelves.  We (my helpful husband) still has to install the baseboard and a new light fixture. The shelves were purchased at the Container Store during their yearly Elfa Shelf sale.  I have used that system in our master closet and have been very happy with it now for about 15 years.
 
It’s really coming along and it’s only been 2 weeks since the project began.  

Here are some of the treasures I have located so far:

• Negatives of photos of my Dad’s first marriage from 1934.
• Pictures of my brother and me when we were kids in Florida.
• Documents that were somehow never filed in their proper place.
• Pictures of me and my Dad from back in the 1970’s.
• An album of photos that belonged to my husband’s grandmother.  We had obtained that album when his Mom died 20 years ago and not seen it since then.
• Lots of other miscellaneous items that I won’t bore you with.

HOW CAN YOU GET MORE ORGANIZED?

JOIN A GROUP - Whether it’s a small area or a big area. It really helps to have the support and encouragement of other genealogists who have similar issues. 
There is a FACEBOOK group called THE ORGANIZED GENEALOGIST that is absolutely wonderful.  This group was started just last year and has grown by hundreds of people.  We all support, share, confess and help one another.  I highly recommend it.

START SOMEWHERE  - Pick up any pile of papers you have sitting out and begin.  Tell yourself you will spend 10 minutes or 15 or whatever works for you, and do just the tasks that involve organizing.  It might be filing.  It might be scanning.  It might be throwing things away.  Taking small steps helps you to not become overwhelmed.  And, think how good you’ll feel at the end of that time.

REMEMBER THE RULE – Only touch each piece of paper ONCE.  Don’t pick it up and move it to another space or pile.  There are THREE things you can do with a piece of paper or document.

1.  ACT ON IT
2.  FILE IT
3.  TOSS IT

That’s it.  It seems simple, but we all know how hard it is sometimes.

I encourage you to start your own organizing project.  Please don’t forget to tell me about your progress and successes.  

STAY TUNED
I will post a picture of that closet once it’s all organized.  I’m hoping that will be by the end of this week.  Wish me luck.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
Digital Folder Organizing & Naming Made Easy
Easy Document Editing

Happy organizing and happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

SETTING GOALS, FOCUSING, ORGANIZING – HOW DO WE HANDLE THESE ISSUES?

I think one of the biggest problems I have these days is getting distracted, stuck, sidetracked or whatever you want to call it.  It frustrates me.  I’ll sit down at my desk, open up my Legacy database and then….what?  Where do I start?  Who should I work on?

Sometimes I do know what I want to work on because it’s something I left unfinished from a previous day.  But, many times recently I find myself wondering “who should I work on today.”  

Am I the only one who has this problem?

I suspect, from entries I have read on genealogy Facebook posts and in talking to other researchers, that I am not alone.  

WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?  IS IT REALLY A PROBLEM?

We all have access to so much information from so many sources. 

          

• Emails telling you the latest deals from Family Tree or Genealogical.com
• Notifications on your Facebook page from genealogy sites you belong to.  Here are some of mine.  The Organized Genealogist, Technology for Genealogy, The Lawrence Register, Detroit Genealogy.
• Notifications from family & friends on Facebook that relate to your research.
• Hints on your Ancestry tree.
• Messages from someone about a Find A Grave memorial.
• Perhaps you get questions from friends or family about how to do something regarding research.
• Oh, and did I mention – creating posts for my blog?

So, how do you go about weeding through all these distractions and focusing on your research?   I’m currently trying to come up with a method.  

I suppose I could just not get online for a few days.  YIKES!  I could decide that I’ll only spend 10-15 minutes once or twice day.  Will that really work for me?  Probably not.

I admit it, I have GADD – Genealogy Attention Deficit Disorder. 

Seriously, though, I do want to focus more on my research.  I guess after having done this for 11 or 12 years (many of you have been at it much longer), it’s not the same as it was in the beginning.  What I mean is, I've already done so much, but there is a lot more to do.   I’m still having fun and completely enjoy researching.  It’s just that I guess I feel as if I need a direction.  

Maybe I should set a particular goal or goals? 

• I will work only on the Boggs family this week.
• I will exhaust all my resources for trying to break down that brick wall.
• I will go through each family beginning with my parents and make sure I have cited all sources and have all census records recorded.
• I will look at the Master Location list on Legacy and clean up misspellings, combine duplicates and purge unused locations (which the program does for you).
• I will go through my digital files for the surnames beginning with the letter ‘A’ and make sure the naming pattern is consistent.
• I will go through my digital files in the ‘pictures’ folders and crop & edit any documents that have black borders or are crooked.
• There is that pile of unscanned documents in the box under my desk.
• There are those pictures I took on my last genealogy trip that I still haven’t all been labeled.

You get the idea.  There are all sorts of things that we can do to become more focused, more organized and improve our strategies for researching.  I’ve listed a few that came to mind as I wrote this.  

In fact, this has really helped me to decide what I want to work on next.  

Aha!  Maybe making a list is another way we can focus?

We all have strategies.  What are yours?  I’d love to hear about them so they can inspire me.  

You might also like these posts.

When our folders are organized we can find what we are looking for
DIGITAL FOLDER ORGANIZING & NAMING MADE EASY.

Not the way we want our doucments to look
EASY DOCUMENT EDITING

Thanks for helping me figure out what I want to do today.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall