Ken's Gen

To use the phrase coined by Diana Ritchie I believe I might just have G.A.D.D., Genealogical Attention Deficit Disorder!

Lately it seems that I come home from work and start one project and the next thing you know I am doing something else, then doing something else. I’m like a jumping bean just going all over the place!

I’ve thought about this. This could be taken as a good thing AND as a bad thing. The bad part is that by jumping back and forth I am not really giving my direct attention to whatever project it is that I am trying to accomplish. I also am making things last a little longer than they should. I know I should be giving my focus to one project and then finishing that before starting something else.

The good part about it is the best part. Having many projects actually works out for the better! I have less chance of getting burnt out on a project and then just dropping it altogether, as I have in the past. Some of the projects I have going right now are tedious, to say the least. Going through all these photos on my hard drive is not always enjoyable! After a while you begin to get tired of searching for duplicates and such and your eyes get wore out from staring at the screen! So, being able to switch to something else is a nice change of pace!

Here are the main projects I have going right now:

• Organizing digital photos on my hard drive
• Building a brand new database in my Family Tree Maker
• Sourcing that database
• Organizing all my sources on my hard drive
• Scanning all the pictures from my huge tote I just sorted through

In the past I have let projects burn me out and, because of that, I have ended up stepping away from my genealogy and my blog. I think the biggest problem was that I was careful to focus on just one project at a time. I really believe that this was what caused the burn out. Lately, having many projects allows me to jump from one to the other and not be burnt out. If I don’t feel like sorting through pictures then I can enter information into my database. If I don’t feel like sourcing my database then I can organize photos.

Of course, I also allow myself time to just step away from it all and play a game or watch some television also!

What do you do to fight your G.A.D.D.?

Ken