Family Search Indexing

My goal for the year is 75,000 names indexed, or roughly 200 names (4 batches of 50) every day for 365 days. Yesterday I hit 37, 500 names, the halfway point to my goal!

I have enjoyed indexing, and am glad for the challenge from our bishop to participate in the process of digitalizing census, birth, death, marriage, etc. records. I am beginning to realize how many unique names I have encountered during my life and feeling reconnected to some of those people when I come across names familiar to me. Additionally, it has been interesting to speculate about what daily life was like for some people during World War II or the 1930s as those are the records I have been spending the most time on. Another intriguing fact is how many young couples lived close to or with their parents, and how many widowed or older parents live with their children and their families. I think we have lost some of the traditions of taking care of each other in our society which has both good and bad consequences.

Several weeks ago I was getting down on myself because I am still on the "beginner" level of indexing records. I was frustrated because even a moderate increase in difficulty was a lot harder than the easiest level and even some of the "easy" ones were not very easy because of different handwriting styles. In trying to change my way of feeling and stop being frustrated with myself, I rephrased my thoughts from "I need to be better so I can do harder things" to "I can accomplish a lot with what I am doing, and when I run out of 'easy' things to do I can move on to something else. Until then, I will focus on what I can do, instead of what I think I need to be doing." This simple but profound lesson has helped me in other areas of my life as well. I feel sometimes life is not about doing the hardest level of a job available, rather it is about being able to do something and do it well.