Live show air date: April 9, 2020

Episode 3 Video and Show Notes

Elevenses with Lisa is the online video series by author, international genealogy speaker, and host of The Genealogy Gems Podcast, Lisa Louise Cooke. Click to watch below, and scroll down for all the show notes from Episode 3. (Dealing with BSOs training begins at the 15:39 mark.)

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Premium Members Exclusive: Show Notes PDF – Genealogy Gems Premium Members can click here to download the show notes PDF for this episode. 

Staying Connected with the Grandkids and Friends

During this time of staying at home, we all miss our loved ones and friends. This week I shared an app with you that is great for playing virtually. Here’s what I did with my grandkids.

1. Set up a computer, phone or tablet for calling on FaceTime. (You could also use Skype, Zoom or any other number of free services.)
2. Download the Draw Something app to a second device – phone or tablet. Since this is a drawing game, a tablet gives you a bit more room to work. 
3. Friend your grandkids through the app. 
4. Video call your grandkids on the first device, and then take turns drawing and guessing pictures on the second device.

 

How Alice the Genealogist Avoids the Rabbit Hole Part 2

Don’t let unexpected genealogical finds send you down a rabbit hole any longer. In this episode I cover concrete strategies for staying focused on what matters most, while not losing track of opportunities that present themselves. You’ll also learn about free tech tools that you can put in place to give you peace of mind, take back those lost hours, and help you be more productive.

Identify BSOs (Bright Shiny Objects)

You can’t avoid danger (to your current research plan) if you don’t know what it looks like! My test will help you determine if what has caught your eye while researching online is a BSO.

Take the BSO Test:

1. Does this get me closer to answering my research question?
2. On a scale of 1 – 10 how potentially critical is this to my research?
3. Am I willing to give up finding the answer to my research question to pursue this?

Once you’ve identified BSOs, it’s time to implement a process for dealing with them so you can stay focused on our research question, as well as return to the BSO to explore its potential.

5 Ways to Capture & Return to BSOs

1. Use a Cloud Note-taking Service

Get yourself a free Cloud note-taking tool (Evernote, OneNote, Google Docs, etc.) and use it consistently. Use the website, software, and/or app to capture unexpected finds while researching.

I happen to use Evernote. If you’re new to Evernote, here’s a quick video that will help explain it to you.

Here’s an example of how I use Evernote to capture BSOs:

• Create a tag in Evernote called BSO.
• Each time you come across something that tempts you to deviate from your current focus, clip it and tag it with the BSO tag. This will allow you to move on with your research plan with confidence, knowing that it will be easy to locate and pursue the BSO later.
• Add additional tags if desired to help you remember what it was about or why it interested you, such as a surname tag.
• Evernote notes can have multiple tags, so use them.
• Annotate the note to provide additional information as to why the BSO caught your eye, and what you plan to follow up on later.
• Evernote will attach a link to the page where you clipped the item to the note. This means with one click you can return to the original source. 

The benefit of using a Cloud-based note-taking tool is that your notes will be available to you on all your devices (depending on whether you have a free or subscription plan.) You can add additional information to your notes, and work with them anytime, anywhere.

2. Schedule BSO Time

One of the main reasons we get side-tracked by BSOs while working online is that we are afraid if we don’t look at it right now we’ll lost it or never go back to it. By scheduling time  specifically for working on tagged BSOs, you will feel more confident about letting them go while you are working on a research plan.

I schedule my time in the free Google calendar. You can have several different calendars (i.e. categories of types of things you schedule.) Create a “BSO” calendar and color code it so it’s easy to spot. Schedule BSO time and follow up items as future events on your calendar. Set Notifications and Email Reminders for each item.

Scheduling BSO times means you can mentally let them go for now! 

Coming in the next episode:

In Episode 4 of Elevenses with Lisa we will cover Mobile Organization. We spend a lot of time on our phones and tablets. Get ready for the best tips and tricks that will help you stay on task.

 

Resources

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