A blast from the past:
It can be easy to waste “research” time by mindlessly looking at online sites for one thing or another. Some ways to avoid these time wasting activities are:
- make a list of research tasks you wish to accomplish;
- turn your internet connection off;
- make a list of documents to transcribe;
- make a list of “done” ancestors that should be reviewed;
- set a schedule of when to go back and check a site for an update to a database (daily is probably excessive);
- lists in general are good.
Chasing some research leads down those “rabbit holes” can be a good thing–sometimes. But it can be easy to waste an inordinate amount of time chasing after half-baked, uncooked leads on your computer, when you’ve got three perfectly good cookies sitting on the counter. The only problem is that you have to get off your chair to get them.
3 Responses
Where were you decades ago when I started doing this??? 🙂
Good suggestions and I’ve often gone down rabbit holes, sometimes finding valuable information though often not. Excessive checking various sites daily for updates? Thought that was funny! Good advice.
Rabbit holes are not necessarily a bad thing, but there has to be a balance or they can be a complete time sink. And repeated checking for updates is a big waste as well–better to set a day every month or so to look for updates (a list is a great idea).