I’ve shown you a section of my to-do list, I told you how it should work, and now it is time to explain why it doesn’t work.
When I was preparing to visit the East Sussex Record Office last week I realised that my to-do list wasn’t doing its job properly. I identified several issues with it that concerned me.
- Not enough information – some entries lacked the background information needed to complete them
- New items not added – I was surprised to find there was nothing about Finding Minnie on my to-do list
- Completed items not removed – As I went through the list I could see several items that had already been completed
- Entries with no “where” indication – Many entries on the list had no indication of where they were to be completed
- No record of partially completed tasks – Some entires had no indication of which sources I have searched
In short my to-do list was incomplete and of course there is only one person to blame. Me.
I really need to take better care of my to-do list if it is going to actually help me do my family history. I suppose it has been too easy to just add things onto the list without really thinking about what I actually need to do to complete them.
I have tried to keep my to-do list as simple as possible, so that it doesn’t take up too much time. There is no point in having a to-do list that takes more time maintain than it does to actually carry out the tasks upon it. Perhaps it is still not simple enough, but I can’t see how I can make it much simpler.
Perhaps it is becoming too big. Perhaps I need to split it into smaller more manageable chunks, but that does defeat the object of having everything in one place where I can easily lay my hands on it.
For now the format of my to-do list is not going to change, however I am going to have to re-visit each and every entry and make sure that it is still needed and that it has all the information that is needed to carry it out.
In the future I promise I will do my best to look after my to-do list better, to nurture it, to feed it with all the information it needs and hopefully not let it get out of hand.
You are funny! It is so easy to get in trouble with paperwork in genealogy. No. 5 on your list is certainly a critical one because you tend to go back to the same places for different people. But it is certainly worth tracking stuff. I am a dive in person and luv just doing things. So my papers are sort of helter skelter. But I am in it for the adventure and try to keep the paperwork to a minimum. I think as long as you record what you HAVE done that is a good start! Genealogy seems to be divided between paper-shufflers and field workers! lol