Welcome 2014!

A new year. A clean slate. An empty calendar. Another opportunity to once again make resolutions and goals that will most likely not be kept for a even week. But making resolutions and goals seems to come with the New Year.

How did I do with my 2013 genealogy goals? Let’s see:

  • Digitize the family home movies taken by my parents in the 1950s. [Unfinished! Not even started. This project has once again been moved to the next year’s list. Maybe 2014 will be the year I complete this project, or at least start it.]
  • Complete and submit my BCG renewal application. [Successfully completed! My renewal application was approved and I was re-certified for another five years.]
  • Scan and digitize Zion Chatt’s old records. [Unfinished! Where does time go?]
  • Clean up my Roots Magic files. [A work in progress. Merging duplicate names and data is a big, time consuming project.]
  • Get a better photo program. [I did get Adobe Photoshop Elements II at the end of the year but have not had time to use it. The program came with my new Cannon camera.]
  • Organize my room, documents and data. [I have done a pretty good job with this goal, but it is a constant struggle to be organized. I spend a lot of time re-organizing and re-filing hard copies as well as computer files. I spent most of yesterday re-organizing computer files. Most difficult are those small, unusual documents that just don’t seem to “fit” into any folder. I do not like to create a folder for just one document, but if I don’t the document seems to get lost in the Misc Folder.]

Goals

I recently read an article by James Clear, “Forget Setting Goals, Do This Instead.” He suggests that instead of focusing on goals, you focus on your system. Rather than looking at the end result–the goal–focus on the actions that will achieve the goal. If you consistently work on your system, little by little you will get things done and complete projects anyway. I like this concept. You basically get the results you desire without the stress of focusing on the goal. It is a different way of looking at how to get things done.

 

So, instead of setting goals, here are my planned genealogy work systems for 2014:

  • Digitize the old home movies. or at least start by setting up the old projector and looking at the old movies. [One of these years I will finish this project.]
  • Use my new camera and the Adobe Photoshop program. [End result: I will learn how to use my new camera and will enjoy taking interesting photos.]
  • Do more newspaper research.
  • Visit people, listen to their stories and learn something..
  • Regularly write blog posts and journal.
  • At least once a week work at cleaning up my Roots Magic files.

Notice that I have tried to keep my list short. We’ll see how it goes in 2014. Happy New Year!

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