Ya Gotta Get It Together-Part Three

Adjusting Your Work Flow

As we continue to organize using Denise Levenick's article in Family Tree magazine, "workflow"will be the hardest element to internalize when organizing. Remember to "go paperless" and keep any more paper from coming "in."

To reiterate, I 
a) scanned or 
b) read and recycled papers/documents,
c) created naming system for documents/emails/text and.
d) created folder naming system.

Levenick suggests the following regarding WorkFlow:

1)  STOP yourself from pushing the PRINT button when you find something online or that might come by email. 

What worked for me:
* Practice cut/paste with non-genealogy email/web material. 

Here was my process:

* I have two Word documents on the desktop. For now, one for each major SURNAME.

* I cut text from email or websites, pasted it in my genealogy software or Word document (remember to capture the email or URL address).

* Levenick suggests to copy and paste to a document, research log, or a Correspondence folder.

2) Keep everything in digital format!

* Which leads to considering "tools"(See step 12 in Levenick's article) that will help you digitize like Evernote, maps, calendars and, other tools.
* I have not yet perfected Evernote.

3) Take a screenshot, copy and paste, or save/bookmark the URL to your favorites.

* I do screenshots, 
* practice copy and paste (see item 1 above), and 
* save/bookmark websites to favorites (to return to).

4) Get books digitized and not in print. Get conference syllabus in .pdf format or on a CD. Get society newsletters and magazines electronically. 

* I have not yet perfected reading a book downloaded from a website for reading.

(I had to literally hold my hand from requesting a print copy of a book to be snail mailed to me OR even printing out the 371 page book.)

* Look on conference registration forms and order the CD of the syllabus. 

* Get the Apps for conferences and take notes on devices.

* Most societies send newsletters electronically. Read and recycle or read and cut and paste.

5) Put your genealogy somewhere! What computer platform and program do you use? Wherever you keep it genealogy software, or genealogy website...keep a master copy. 

_____________________________________

 LOCKSS: 
* Back up not only monthly but keep a copy of your files on three or more locations. 

* Keep it safe and make one of those locations... the CLOUD.

Remember the goal is to become organized and productive by "going paperless." With suggestions from Denise Levenick you can "go paperless" or at least "go with less paper." 

Become a more organized and productive research genealogist.

It can be done. I did it!

___________________________________________

Denise Levenick,  Family Tree magazine, July/August p 21-26.

Glimpses on the Horizon Blog Ya Gotta Get It Together Part 1& 2

See ya down the road...

Copyright @ 2015-16 Diane McClure Lott

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

Ya Gotta Get It Together - Part Two

Getting Organized—Part Two

or 

Now that I got it what do I do with it?

A  practical approach to getting organized using Denise Levenick's article "The End of the Paper Trail" in Family Tree magazine.

Step One was to get rid of my flatbed scanner and buy a sheet feed scanner.  You can use a sheet feed scanner as a flatbed scanner if this capability is needed. 

Sheet feed scanning will produce an enormous amount of digital documents and NOW to deal with naming and filing.

Step Two was creating a "file-naming scheme" Levenick suggests a system that "you know what is in the file before you open it."

Levenick suggests these two naming options:

1) date first (1930 Smith_ James_census), 
or

2) surname first (Lott_ Cornelius_Jamaica-NewYork 
or even my suggested naming option by

3) type of document (Swiss_Lacapo_lecture)

Creating the file name and folder name system is not hard. It helps you:
*pull it together 
* get some semblance of order

BUT

* Now that you have named it 

where do you put it?

Step Three was to consider the " folder system" on my computer.

I had my own "folder system" and surprisingly it was almost what Levenick suggested. (See detailed example in Levenick's article step 8.)

It is all a matter of getting a file naming scheme in place "consistently" as well as a folder system in place "consistently."

(A suggestion from Nancy Loe and Sassy Jane Genealogy, too.)

This is time consuming work especially if you have not done any organizing but it is even harder when correcting what you thought was organization.

Levenick suggests a cheat sheet with the naming scheme(s) posted near your computer.  I concur Denise.

Personal Note:

Consistency (I fall down here)...I am working on it.  

  
More of my challenges in organizing with comments from Levenick on"Adjusting your Workflow" in Ya Gotta Get It Together — Part Three.

Have you been organizing? 

Please let me know your challenges and solutions.

See ya down the road...

____________________________________
Denise Levenick, "The End of the Paper Trail," Family Tree magazine, July/August, p 21-26.