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This week's Tuesday's Tip is to -- create and keep an up-to-date to-do list for your genealogy research efforts - whether in repositories or online.
I have To-Do lists for the following:
* Surname/Family History and Locality books that I want to review at a library.
* Periodicals that I want to review at a library.
* Books and periodicals that I want to purchase or subscribe to.
* Websites that I want to check out.
* Online databases that I want to mine for information about my ancestral families (including surnames).
* Microfilms that I want to review at the FHC or FHL for specific families or records.
Once you have a set of To-Do lists, it is fairly easy to keep them updated. Mine are in word processing documents, which I print out to take on a research trip. When I have reviewed a book, periodical, microfilm or database, I note the place and date, and the results found in handwriting, then I update the list in the word processing document after the research trip. If I find something of interest that is not on my list, I add it to the list at the repository with my notes. I can then copy/paste the completed items to a Research Log file (also a word processing document) for a record of what I have done, and delete the item from the To-Do list.
2 comments:
As an avid RootsMagic user yourself I am amazed you don't use the ToDo tools in RM, they are very good and also usable as research logs...
Some quick questions regarding this tip (great tip as I am currently updating my to-do lists).
1. why don't you use the to-do list in a genealogy database program - they appear to be keyed to individuals as well as general to-dos?
2. why do you delete finished to-dos? Do you ever find you redo a to-do?
3. why do you keep a separate research log?
4. how do you coordinate your genealogy database with your word processing documents?
I am trying to find the most efficient way to keep my to-dos and wonder how yours works in practice. Thanks so much for sharing.
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