FINALLY Get Organized! Jan 3rd-9th 2016

[If you'd like more information on Dear Myrtle's Finally Getting Organized  - click on the picture to the right]

Here are our marching order for this week along with my progress.  I'm pretty good for this week because I spent my Christmas break time cleaning my genealogy room:

1. Clear off the computer desk and make piles for everything.

Done as far as clearing off my computer desk.  I don't have piles for everything instead I have project boxes where I grouped things by large category.  Sometimes it was surname, sometimes type of project.  For instance I have a box with a large number of my grandfather's negatives to scan.  These boxes are all arranged in the closet.

2. Check your office supplies, and replace any missing or lost items.

Done.  As a matter of fact I think I have enough office supplies for many years to come. I made a box to store the extras so they aren't cluttering things up.

3. Setup your computer desk and office the way you really want it! 

Done with a gold star!  My brother-in-law helped me set up my computer to accommodate a third monitor.  That's been my dream arrangement for a couple of years now and I'm so happy to have this set up.

4. Designate a special red clipboard as the "When Computer Help Arrives" clipboard.

I'm passing on this one.  I AM the computer help in my family, or, if I have an issue I can't tackle, I ask the above mentioned brother-in-law.

5. Designate a special green clipboard as the "Genealogy Challenges" clipboard.

This fits in so well with advice in the Genealogy Do-Over workbook about BSOs [Bright, Shiny Objects]  Basically it's the same concept - write it down and move on, don't follow the bunny trail.  I've found this works well in many ways.  When my mind is like that browser with waaay too many tabs open it helps me to write some things down and then I can concentrate on the one thing I should be working on.  So in this case my "green clipboard" is a note in Evernote called, "To research later."  I'm not sure right now if I'll divide that up into separate note for surnames or just use tags to do the work.  So, I'm considering this one done as well.

Pretty good for week one - but they I had a huge head-start on this one!