How To Set An Annual Goal For Your Genealogy Plan

Setting a goal for your genealogy research plan can be a powerful way to focus your efforts and make progress on discovering your family history.

Whether you’re a beginner just starting to explore your roots or an experienced genealogist looking to take your research to the next level, having a clear goal in mind can help guide your efforts and keep you motivated.

Genealogy Research Plan Template

To help my fellow genealogists and family historians, I’ve created a genealogy research plan template…

Genealogy Research Plan Example

2023 Genealogy Research Planner

Which can be downloaded here So what makes a good genealogy goal, and how can you set one for yourself? Here are some tips to help you get started.

A good goal is BOLD.

First, it’s important to understand that a good goal is bold. It should be something that challenges and excites you and feels like a real stretch to achieve. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your goal has to be huge or impossible – it just means that it should be something that takes effort to accomplish.

A good goal is INSPIRATIONAL.

In addition to being bold, a good goal is inspirational.

Rather than setting a goal that ‘looks good on paper,’ you’ll dramatically increase the chances of achieving your goal if it is emotionally compelling and intrinsically motivating.

It’s essential to spend time identifying a goal that is innately meaningful to you.

This means that achieving the goal should be something that you care deeply about and that its pursuit brings you joy and satisfaction, rather than being driven by external consequences such as money or praise.

A good genealogy goal will also help increase your confidence as a family historian because it will take you in new directions that can help you build additional skills.

Through your goal, ideally, you’ll need to problem solve, to think of new ideas and develop innovative ways of doing things as well as broach highly specialised topics, collections and repositories for example – all of which will help you become a better researcher.

Goal Setting Steps

To set a bold, inspirational goal for your genealogy research, try following these steps:

Step 1: Get Free Genealogy Research Planner

1. Download Genealogy Space’s free genealogy research planner from here

Step 2: Brain Dump

1. Jot down all the things you’d like to achieve this year on a piece of paper – no matter how small or how large the ambition

2. From your collection of ideas choose a single goal, or create a goal from joining a number of related tasks/projects together 3. Write down your genealogy Bold Goal in the planner

Step 3. Ask Five Whys

1. Looking at your newly minted goal, ask yourself, “Why do I care about this goal?” and write down the answer in the planner so as to connect with it at an emotional level

2. Repeat this same process four more times to delve deeper into the emotional motivation that this goal holds for you

3. Write down your Big Why with your Bold Gold

Step 4. Keep Your Goal At-Hand

1. Now that you have your ‘Bold Goal’ and your ‘Big Why’ defined, display them so you can see them and refer to them easily, and frequently

Related Genealogy Planner Articles

This article is the first in a series to accompany the 2023 Genealogy Research Planner which can be used as your genealogy research plan template and can be downloaded from here.

#1: How To Set An Annual Goal For Your Genealogy Plan

#2: Plan Your Genealogy Quarter-By-Quarter To Achieve Your Goals

#3: Monthly Plans For Genealogy: 5 Simple Steps

#4: Introducing The 1-Page Genealogy Research Plan

#5: Boost Your Genealogy Workflow With This Simple Productivity Template

#6: The Benefits Of Using A Genealogy Progress Tracker

To download the the Genealogy Planner Workbook: Access Here