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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Genealogy Tech Morning Routine

Geniaus Blogger, Jill Ball asks us all how we start our morning tech routine. I know few bloggers in the world who have a better feel and understanding of genealogy tech than Jill Ball. So I was very interested in learning about how all these wonderful blog posts come about. Not so different than the rest of us, I find out.

My schedule is probably not the envy of anyone. I usually get up at 6:00 am local time in Arizona. Probably so time in the afternoon or evening in Australia, and the first thing I do is turn on the computers. I immediately start through the dozens of email messages that have accumulated over night and during the afternoon when I am getting behind on email. I then check all the messages stacked up in Skype. Moving on, I start into the blog reader. Usually, there are no less than 20 to 30 posts since I signed off about 10:00 pm the night before. I then start answering email, responding to Skype questions and generally coming to grips with what is going on in the world.

While getting ready for the rest of the day, I check the world and local news on my iPhone and look at more email. (I can see you are all envious already). I then get down to business writing. I update the blogs and process photos for my photo blogs and then write my TechTips posts. Then it is off to writing on my next book. With short stops for meals I try to keep at writing until around 8:00 at night.

During the week, of course, I spend time teaching classes and helping patrons at the Mesa Regional Family History Center and sometimes have to take care of other things, like fixing cars, buying food, you know the stuff you do to keep alive. Some days I feel like I have made some progress some days I don't. Almost every week, I have genealogical mysteries to solve and other activities mostly Church and Boy Scouts activities. Sunday is mostly Church related activities, although I help teach the Family History class during Sunday School.

I guess the key to keeping up with the kaleidoscope of the tech world is just constantly being online either with a computer, laptop or iPhone. This last few weeks, I have spent a lot of time writing syllabuses for the upcoming Genealogy Conferences. Tomorrow I will start writing all over again.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, James for your kind words.

    I marvel at how you manage to put out so many thoughtful and coherent blog posts. It's interesting to see how others work.

    If you are ever at a loss for subject matter for a tech tip/blog post you might like to tell us more about your use of Skype for responding to questions.

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  2. I feel tired just reading about your day, James :-)

    Skype is great for talking to friends o/seas but I've never used it for messages. Do tell.

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