Happy 2nd Quarter 2011! (My Continuing New Year's Resolutions)

(Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net ~ Photo by Francesco Marino)

Early morning ruminating about my genealogy resolutions with my favorite beverage, coffee with cream.  While I continue working through my first quarter resolutions, I decided to add a few more resolutions for the second quarter of 2011, here they are ~

1. I resolve to keep up my correspondence with the individuals I met in the Bonavista Bay region of Newfoundland.  I need a simple method to encourage them help fill in the blanks on my research so we can group families in the Plate Cove area.
2. I resolve to make use of the Plate Cove Facebook page and use email or snail mail as necessary to follow up on these contacts for extended family members from the Plate Cove area.
3. I resolve to continue working smarter, not harder, in 2011 – This continues to be a work in progress but I know it will make my life easier in the long run.  This quarter I will focus on the following three areas:
• Document - Use a research log each and every day for the second quarter of 2011.  I am using the research log but it is not second nature yet and I am still working on the format.  How do others use paper and pen and/or the computer to log their research?
• Source - Work on cleaning up my sources (these are ones that were entered haphazardly or before I became best friends with Evidence Explained) and strive toward consistency as far as sourcing is concerned.  This is quite a time-consuming but very necessary task and I have decided to tackle a dozen sources a week until I get them cleaned up.
• Protect – Backup my computer on a regular basis –  I purchased two external hard drives for my notebook and have set up a formal backup system: 
• On the first hard drive I have a complete backup (on a monthly basis) of
• the C drive of my notebook computer,
• my Creative Memories' Memory Manager libraries [the family library which consists of all our family slides and photographs which were professionally scanned (onto DVDs) and my library which consists of all my personal photographs as well as all photographs and scans taken of all my genealogy research],
• all my genealogy files, and
• all my Legacy program files
• On the second hard drive I have backups (on a weekly basis) of
• my Creative Memories' Memory Manager libraries, and
• all my Legacy program files 
• I attended Thomas MacEntee's webinar on data backup on March 23.  His presentation was really informative and reminded me how important it is to take the time to safeguard my work. 
• our genealogy research data is an investment ~ how much time, effort and cost has gone into your research?  What would you do if you lost it all tomorrow?  Would you be able to recreate it?  Why put yourself in that position?
• make a plan for safeguarding your data
• use a combination of backup methods
• be sure to backup not only all your data, but also your favorites or bookmarks, your settings, your email, and your blog or website
• use your calendar to remind you of your backup schedule
• keep it simple and do it! 
• be sure to check out Thomas MacEntee's website at www.geneabloggers.com

So far, so good.  These resolutions are continuing in nature but I take time every week and focus on a particular aspect of my genealogy and work through it.  I hope that by the end of the year, my computer files, paper files, and genealogy database (Legacy Family Tree) will all be clean and shinny like a new penny and that the fruit of my labor (this year-long organization project) is scads of time for research and writing! 

How are you doing with your genealogy goals this year?  How do you organize your computer files, your paper files and your "genealogy life."  Do you have any tips or hints - if so, please share them.