If you had or will have company over during this holiday season, did you groan as you had to “hide” some of your piles of genealogy papers, documents, CDs, thumb drives, and other things? As you take it all back out, did you groan again? Why didn’t I just file these to begin with? Why didn’t I put the CDs or thumb drives back in the box where I keep them?
One way to overcome this is to make an appointment with yourself. It’s no different from making an appointment with the dentist or doctor. You don’t have to leave the house or apartment, but you should still keep the appointment.
I have said it before, but with the New Year about to arrive, it’s time to be more organized. That appointment can be used in several ways:
- Filing or placing things away at least an hour every week.
- Spending time online doing some searches at the appointed time each week. You will likely still do some at other times, but this specific time should be when you are wide awake, have fewer distractions, and are not thinking you should be going to bed.
- Sending emails to the distant relatives to ask a couple questions.
- Taking a few old files and sorting through them to dispose of extra paper and find goodies to scan.
- Reviewing old files or stacks of paper to update your “research to do” list.
- Going to the Family History Center or public library to look at films you ordered.
- I would be remiss if I didn’t include a reminder to work on a “to do” list for February when you attend the FGS Conference in Salt Lake City and research at the Family History Library.
It’s your choice, but an appointment that stares out at you from your calendar helps to keep you on track. I am using Sunday afternoons for some of those tasks. Will you keep your appointments?
© 2014, Paula Stuart-Warren. All rights reserved.
Good New Year’s ideas for those who need organization. I am generally pretty organized, but my “organization” appointments are going to be for remounting hundreds of old family photos that have been scanned back into archival albums. I am not much into scrapbooking-type activities and would much rather be researching or entering information. Thank you for the tips.
Very good ideas. Thankfully I don’t move stuff for company as it is in my office and I can just close the door. For years I did the quick picker-upper for family visits, but now things are pretty much as they are generally. Now I need to keep moving forward on my piles in the office. My prayer is not to get sidelined so often and keep those dates on the calendar. This will wait unitl after SLIG and I hope to return home refreshed and ready to tackle the projects. I do need to creat a list of what needs to be done and select a time for doing them.
Thanks, Paula! Guess I needed “permission” to schedule myself on my own calendar. Sounds funny, but I am going to try it!