Creating a schedule

Now that my summer is pretty much over, I must go back to thinking about how I am going to spend my time. More importantly, how will I spend my time on genealogy?

I like to make little schedules in my mind, to help me stay focus and this way I won’t spend all my time playing Candy Crush. I want to expand my family tree, not necessarily advance to the next level in Candy Crush. Okay, I do play Candy Crush and yes I have been stuck on the same level for almost a month, so it is really easy to put that frustrating game aside and think about what I really want to do.

Last spring, I had a different schedule because I was working on a huge scanning project and working on an obituary project. These projects are done and now I can concentrate on the new tasks on hand. So how do I schedule my time? I first need to identify what I need to do. I received 7 photo albums from my sister who received them from my aunt and they don’t all have pictures, some are more like scrapbooks, so I have a new scanning project to do. So to stay on task, I will probably designate one day a week for this scanning project.

My scanning project will entail, not only scanning, but then naming, filing the scan into the proper folder, attaching the scan to my genealogy program and updating names and facts based on the scan.  I now realize this scanning project will take a while, so I like to designate Monday’s to my scanning project. I usually don’t schedule appointments for Monday because I have a habit of forgetting them over the weekend. It is wonderful that doctor’s offices call and remind me of appointments, but when they are closed on Fridays, they call on Thursday to remind me of an appointment that if four days away.  I get so busy on my weekends, which include Fridays because my husband doesn’t work Fridays, that on Monday I have totally forgotten that appointment. Lesson learned, try not to schedule appointments on Monday. With all that said, if I end up having a commitment on Monday, I can then push my scanning project to Tuesday.

Wednesdays I volunteer at the Genealogy Library and that is pretty much written in stone. I work my schedule around this day. The only time I don’t volunteer is when I am out of town on vacation. Currently I have only two Wednesday this fall that I know I will miss.

I also I try to schedule things only four days a week for genealogy, Monday through Thursday since my husband is off on Fridays. Fridays are my grocery shopping day and that takes up a couple of hours in the morning. I also try to clean my house on Fridays because my husband makes the chores go so much faster when he helps. A lot of time, he cleans the yard or garage and I do the house.

So looking at my schedule this leaves Tuesdays and Thursdays to actual genealogy research. I think this schedule looks really nice, not overwhelming. I will have time to squeeze in my Newsletter Editor duties during these days, I teach classes once in a while and this will also fit into my schedule nicely.

So today is Monday and I should start my scanning, but my computer room is a little messing and I think I will spend a little time getting some of this into shape. I will also spend a little time going through my emails too. Perhaps I will push back my scanning to Tuesday or Thursday when the desk is cleaned off and I have room to open the photo album and can easily remove items to scan, and then place them back.