Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.
Showing posts with label Workspace organization.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Workspace organization.. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

At Work or How I stay organized


Yes, that is my desk. As you can see, not a lot of space, so staying organized while I obsess and compulsively search is really important. I've taken to adding post it notes and clips to my piles so that I can quickly search through them for what I am looking for. You can also see that I also enjoy listening to music/audiobooks while I work. The large sheet from the notepad has citations for the obituaries and marriage notices I found. I will save the image and type the name of the newspaper and the date, page and column where available. On the bit from a biography, I actually wrote the name of the individual and his father's name so that when I get to it I don't draw a complete blank. The calculator is there to figure ages.

Lots of notepaper around because it gets buried so easily. Also, I am a southpaw, so smaller pads work better for me, although I have a large notebook sitting on my scanner. I usually use that for tracking census when I am searching for a family. Just more room to write the info, makes me wish I was more ambidextrous. Don't forget the paper attached to the top of my laptop. Right now it is holding a bunch of obituaries for me to type. I try to print obits and marriage notes two to a page. The note holder also will clip to the side of the monitor if necessary. What you can't see are my stapler and my little sticky-notes flags. I use these to mark pages in books.

No, that is not dirt on the wall to the left of my monitor - it is the shadow of a lucite case that holds some of my miniatures. I love minis and am trying to figure out a place to put together a half-inch scale dollhouse kit I have owned for years.

The printer on the far left is the possessed thing that has been making me nuts the last couple of weeks.

I know the size of my office would not work for a lot of people but it is actually larger than the office I occupied when I was a pathology secretary. And it is bigger than the cubby I had when I worked at the library. Since this has MY STUFF in it, I like it a lot better. It also has a window which helps me keep an eye out for the newspaper and the mailman and is great for birdwatching.  Not pictured are the binoculars I use to try and identify birds at the bird feeder. DH thinks I use them for spying on the neighbors! Who has time for that?