Peace of Mind Organizing

The power of planning

7 April 2014

I’m leaving today for Independence, Missouri, to do research at the Midwest Genealogy Center, part of the Mid-Continent Public Library. I’ve been doing almost all of my genealogy research at home on my computer and I’ve decided it’s time to branch out and look for documents not available on the internet.

Here’s a photo of the building. It looks nice!

I blogged on Organize Your Family History about how I planned to prepare for this trip to make the best of my time there.

Sometimes, despite my best intentions, I don’t actually do much advance planning for a trip, but this time I did it right. I took the time to figure out what it is I hoped to find at the library so I wouldn’t waste time on site trying to figure that out.

That pre-planning has created so much peace of mind! There are still some questions about how exactly I’ll go about finding what I want, but coming in armed with questions I want answered makes me feel so good.

If I hadn’t done this planning, I know I’d spend the 3.5-hour drive worrying about how things were going to go, afraid that I wouldn’t make good use of my time. Instead, I get to enjoy the anticipation of hitting the ground running when I get there late this afternoon.

Of course, my planning has extended to finding a hotel in close proximity to the library, where I’ll be comfortable, and researching nearby restaurants.

In many aspects of life, a few hours spent planning can reap so many dividends in terms of time—and anxiety—saved. Sometimes I feel like I’m moving too fast to do proper preparations, but when I do take the time to plan, I’m always glad I did.

Tagged with: family history research, genealogy, organize your family history, planning, travel

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