How to Look Forward on Your Genealogy Journey

The year 2020 was rough for many of you. I was not immune to the stresses of that year. However, as we look forward to the year 2021 we can have courage and determination to make this year different for our genealogy. Maybe you were unmotivated this last year to even look at your genealogy. You wanted to just let all of your genealogy go because you just had too many things to take care of instead. Maybe you wanted to do your genealogy, but just didn’t want to take the effort. Now is the time to change, my friend! You can look forward to using this time to get organized, get a plan, and get started! I’ll show you how this month.

Look Forward to Get Organized

This is what I do every year at the beginning because Christmas and all it’s fun festivities leaves me and my house a mess! So first, you need to get what you already have organized or at least know where everything is in case you need it later on. I share details on how I do this by changing your genealogy mindset so you can get things done and how I organize my genealogy to save time and energy in the long run.

Look Forward to Get a Plan

Next, you need to have a plan of action. I know you know this already, but inspiration doesn’t come without action! So by acting on what you already know is a really big step! Keep going! You CAN take time for yourself once the holiday mayhem has subsided for a bit. Now it still won’t be easy and your brain will tell you not to try because it’s too hard. But just make a list of all of the things you WANT to do with your genealogy. I also share how research plans have helped me shape my genealogy research goals if doing research is one of your goals this year.

Some of my list includes

• get all of the papers organized into family files
• Make sure all of my family history is updated on Family Search
• Set goals on specific family lines to research and verify information
• Tackle a brick wall on another family line
• Upload edited family stories onto Family Search Family Tree
• Call extended family for copies of my ancestor’s photos
• Start my life history

See? It doesn’t have to be hard or overwhelming. It just has to be down on paper or your phone or computer. Now, again your brain is going to look at this list and say, “You don’t have time for this! Where are you going to fit this in? You have so many other responsibilities that are more important.” I promise you I deal with that brain and it’s messages just as much as you do! I have to train my brain to look how far we’ve come in our family history work as I’m living life as well. So I get it! I truly do! It doesn’t mean that I still don’t try! And leads us into our next step.

Look Forward and Get Started

Now take that list and realistically put it into your schedule. You are going to have to actually write it down. Now this step is going to take some trial and error. Sometimes we don’t know how long it’s going to take to accomplish our plan so we either under-plan or over-plan for it. We either don’t give ourselves enough time or we give ourselves too much time to accomplish it. That’s ok! We’re still learning! But the first step is put it on your schedule!

Then you do have to honor that step. For me, I don’t put anything on my calendar unless I know I have a 90% chance of fulfilling that plan. I’ve learned the hard way that I have to keep my promises to myself as well as to others. So now if I can’t give it my 100% yes, then I save it for later.

I challenge all of you to pick one thing from your list this month to get your genealogy organized. That’s it! This month it’s all about getting started with whatever genealogy goal you have planned.

Conclusion

So just remember that you must get organized first before you can accomplish your goals. Have big ambitions, but start small! And as always if you need help with getting organized, I offer a 30 minute free consultation call. We can go over your plans and I can help you figure out where to start and how to keep going on your genealogy journey. Just contact me and we can get you on the books!

In the meantime…good luck and happy hunting!

Tiffany

P.S. Make sure you pick one thing to organize this month for your genealogy!