Priorities. Gosh, where do I begin? When it comes to managing a genealogical endeavor as a whole it is easy to get off track from some of the more important tasks. I know this far too well. Since my own family tree remains a working family tree there is the never ending need to revisit brick wall lines and research the good old traditional way. That assignment alone can be time consuming. But what about all the other fun stuff and how do I manage to fit it all in?
Lucky for me, I happen to be a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) at the present, so I tend to sneak in some research here and there or check in on my recent DNA matches at any odd hour of the day. To give you an example of some other projects on my work desk they are as follows:
- Complete family tree and history books for entire maternal side of the family by September 4th. That’s a total of 12 books.
- Continue planning upcoming genealogy road trip to Mississippi this October.
- Research additional DNA software and online tools to assist with making genetic connections. Get my computer up to date with software and learn new software.
- Review DNA matches for new clues to help with brick wall lines and plot matches in tree where the relationship has been confirmed.
- Continue to add source information to a number of family members within my tree.
- Start mapping chromosomes with Kitty Cooper’s awesome Chromosome Mapping Tool.
- Keep content coming and going for this blog.
With everything I just listed above it sounds more like a job and less like a hobby. Fortunately, I really dig doing all of this and learning about genetic genealogy and tying that into the family history. So where do I begin? Well there are some things that are obviously on-going, so I need not add any more pressure to those than there already is. I offer this advice to myself and anyone else trying to get their priorities in check. Start with the items that have an immediate deadline. If a deadline hasn’t been set up by outside forces then try to set some for yourself. If one particular project starts making your mind numb, skip to the next item on the list and revisit it at a later time. Perhaps dedicating a day for each exercise may work as well. Monday could be a day for checking in on your DNA matches. Tuesday could be source at least 5-10 people within your tree day. Wednesday could be designated for reading about current software development or any additional genealogy research aid and so on. In my case, once I’ve knocked out the books and road trip planning I think I will designate certain tasks for certain days and hopefully I can make it stick. If you have a tip that you feel works well with staying on task please do tell, because God knows I am personally terrible at keeping my course. Oy!