Having a plan of action can help you make the most of your research time. It can be so easy to get overwhelmed by the information available that you end up going in five different directions at once and really get very little accomplished.
One minute you're trying to locate a birth record for your great-grandmother in Louisiana, and the next minute you're surfing on Google looking for German war records to verify some facts on your great-great-uncle. Before you know it, your time is gone, and you didn't actually find anything.
At any one time, you should have a specific area of your tree that you are focusing on. Choose a particular relative, or even just one particular fact about a relative. Keep your focus tight, no more than one or two generations on any one branch (as in one family group with parents and children).
The best way to keep your plan fresh in your mind is to write it down. Make a little to-do list of what you are actively trying to accomplish and stick to it. Keep several separate tasks on your list, so you know where to head as soon as the current one is complete. Most software programs have a to-do list built in. Check out the feature and get in the habit of using it.
How detailed you keep your plan is up to you. If you have a lot of time to dedicate to your genealogy studies, then you can realistically pursue several avenues at ones. But if you are tight for time (like most of us), it is likely best if you keep your research targeted to a certain line in your tree, or even as narrow as a single ancestor at a time.
You could just make a quick note about who are you are working on, or make a more specific list of information you need for find for that person (perhaps even take note of where you want to start searching). Besides keeping track of who you are looking for, you can also use your to-do list to remember other tasks like sorting through your files, reading books or archiving those old photos.
When you know you have an "open-ended" branch of your tree, that is ripe for further research and further distraction, just mark it for later. A post-it note is great for paper records, or most software programs will let you add a flag to any person in the file. Add a note, along with where you want to research next and leave it be until later. That way you won't be distracted to track down new leads that head in the wrong direction.
The details are not that important, nor are instructions really necessary for how to make a to-do list. The point is that you really need to have a list of priorities so that your research can flow smoothly and productively. It's just one more aspect of keeping organized.
