In Week 1, we are to concentrate on three things: setting previous research aside, preparing to research, and setting base practices and guidelines. Here is how I am doing it (so far):
SETTING PREVIOUS RESEARCH ASIDE
I thought this would be a difficult thing for me to do, since I have 14 years worth of documents, papers, files , disks and emails. However, I have a genealogy "office" where most of this stuff is located, and I know where to find things when I need them. All I need to do is close the door and ignore it. Mr. MacEntee had a good suggestion: putting everything aside and then adding a task to my To Do list of locating a record when I need it. This I will do! I have also started a new family tree on Family Tree Maker for my side of the family, The Fosters. I will be concentrating on the main Foster line, and can continue with the other branches of the Foster line later. This will de-clutter my work AND my brain! New folders for the Do-Over have also been set up in Explorer, Evernote and Outlook.
PREPARING TO RESEARCH
This involves thinking about how I did my research in the past and how I can make changes for this do-over. Throughout my genealogy travels I have been very bad about sourcing all my information and keeping track of where I have been and what I have done. One thing I want to concentrate on is properly sourcing everything I have and continuing the practice in the future. I will also start making use of logs faithfully so I don't re-research somewhere that I already looked! Another thing that needed rethinking was time. I usually would jump on my Genealogy work whenever I had a chance. In the last few months I was working at my 9-5 and doing overtime, leaving no time for other things (genealogy). Since I have now rid myself of the overtime work, I can set aside time each day to concentrate on this effort.
I am also instructed to make a list of items I need to have available when doing my research. Here's what I have so far:
Notebook & pen
Family Tree Maker program
Evernote - I use this a little bit but not as extensively as I should
A copy of Evidence Explained - Ordered but not received yet
Also available are Pinterest and Facebook
ESTABLISHING BASE PRACTICES AND GUIDELINES
Reviewing and establishing procedures for my research is a hard one for me. The few that I have so far are:
Cite ALL sources, no matter what form they come in - What, where, when
Track ALL work done - Successes, dead ends and all non-productive searches
"First pass is the only pass." - Slow down and study all information obtained
Use Evernote effectively - Need to read up on this!
This is very scary for me, but I think it will greatly benefit the goals that I want to achieve! Week 1 goes from Jan 2-8, so I still have more time to think on these things. Wish me luck!