Z is for Zero

Today, is Zero Day. So, you’ve read all the Society’s posts during the course of the last month .... What? You haven’t? You’ve missed out on so much! I really would recommend you take the time to go back over the tips and ideas, sources and suggestions that the team have shared. I - for one - have been inspired. Unfortunately, it’s not often I manage to find the time to develop my one-place studies but, this last weekend, I took the opportunity to look back at all the records I have relating to Tetcott, Luffincott and my new interest of Porcupine, and took the opportunity of putting some meat on the bones.

Zero Day. It’s time to stop making excuses: “Oh, I’ll do that when I have more time/when I retire/when this project is finished.....”, if you keep saying that, your one-place research will stay right where it is forever. If you could do anything today, what would it be? Transcribe that document, begin creating that transcript of the 1841 census you have been promising you’d do, label those photographs you took at the record office three (plus) years ago.... Whatever it is, start now.

Doing a community or one-place study takes time but it doesn’t have to be done all in one go. Give yourself some small tasks to achieve over a period of time - days if you can, weeks if you can’t! Little and often, you’ll soon see the difference.

Zero Day is the day to plan - what are you going to achieve in the next month? This year? Plan now, so Zero Day isn’t every day.

Kirsty Gray