Simplifying your life through organization is very popular right now thanks to Marie Kondo’s organization series on Netflix. Organization is also important when it comes to genealogy. Keeping your things and life uncluttered and simple will help you with stress-free research. A book that I highly recommend is Organize Your Genealogy by Drew Smith and is a great resource to help you accomplish this goal.
I love books, and I prefer paper to eBooks because I like to mark-up and write notes in them to help me remember what I have learned. This book is a favorite and an essential addition to your resource library. At the first of each year, I reread Organize Your Genealogy to refresh me of my organizational goals and help me set new ones.
There are eleven chapters, and you can study the section you are interested in because they are stand-alone chapters. The book starts with a chapter on organizing yourself. It stresses how important it is to take care of yourself and how vital routines and habits are to your success as a genealogist. There is even a Research Habit Tracker form at the end of the chapter to help you work on patterns that will help you succeed.
Another important chapter is “Organizing Your Notes and Ideas.” These items seem to be the easiest to become disorganized. I tend to have notes written on any piece of paper I have handy at the time. This book has helped me to realize that I need a notebook nearby to record my thoughts and information. Since I have moved to this system, I don’t have the problems of pieces of paper with important information floating around on my desk.
“Organizing Your Files” is another excellent chapter. It is so important so that you can retrieve your information quickly. This chapter includes not just paper files but electronic files also. All chapters have forms at the end to use to help you keep organized, and the one for this chapter has an excellent form for you to keep track on how you name your files — no more forgetting whether you named the files with last name or first name first.
The goal of this book is to help become more organized helping you make the most of your energy and time in your genealogical pursuits. Whether you are a newbie or an experienced genealogist, this book is for you.
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