I receive a lot of emails from distant relatives where we
are sharing information about different branches of my family. I have developed
a habit when dealing with these emails. I try to deal with the email
immediately. I add new information to my database and reference the email as my
source. However, if I don’t have time to deal with the email, I will change the
status of the email as unread. I make
sure that I don’t let more than a week lapse before adding new information to
my charts. I make sure I respond to the email if they are requesting new
information. Even if I don’t have time, I will let them know when I will make
time to deal with their request. This
way it forces me to meet that deadline. No one expects you to drop everything
to deal with their request, but it is rude if you don’t reply or acknowledge
receiving their request. Especially if you want to keep receiving help from
your relatives, you want to make sure you make them feel important and
worthwhile.
However, if you have been putting off dealing with these
types of correspondence and now have a pile of these waiting for your
attention, do it today. Start with the oldest and go through your pile and
handle as many as you can today. If you have too many, then make sure you do
either a set number of them each day you set aside for your genealogy or a set
time frame such as 30 minutes at the beginning of your research day. There
could be valuable leads hiding in these notes. Remember, don’t work harder but
smarter.
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