You need to find the group where you will id most of observations you see, otherwise it’d be too frustrating and mostly wasting time, if you feel tired, just take a break and maybe set up how many ids a way you want to do.
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Everybody does IDing differently. Unlike the really dedicated IDers – which includes many of you, who should be applauded for your efforts – I’m not very systematic in IDing records. My process is more like a random walk through records from my area that show up on my home page, IDing some and skipping others until I get bored or frustrated by potted plants and photos of scenery (which is often quickly). So I’m not one to criticize or advise on how anyone should do it. But if you’re feeling burned out, that’s the time to do something else for a while.
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Pterygota, Pinus and Fungi … then let those 3 groups of identifiers carry the torch further.
Even if mine only gets, not Pinus but … it is still getting identified.
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Yeah, that’s what I do! I do try to take observations down farther if I can.
I also just realized I had not been out iNatting for TWO WEEKS. Yes, it’s winter here and it’s been a messy one, but still. So I just took myself out for a bit, which helped. I may have even seen otter tracks and slides on a frozen pond.
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the links for “shadowing” are very helpful! thank you!
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(my God, what a thread… sorry I couldn’t read it 100%, it’s simply too much)
Just in case someone likes to help with (general) identifications, I created projects which focus on “neglected” geographical areas (only Invertebrates)
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/neglected-areas-north-central-asia-invertebrata
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/neglected-areas-africa-invertebrata
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/neglected-areas-remote-islands-invertebrata
another one on spectacular Neotropical moths (Lepidoptera) which need ID, more for the specialists, I reckon
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/spectacular-what-is-it
and finally one which groups all families of the so-called Micro-Lepidoptera (polyphyletic)
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/microlepidoptera
This is, of course, all near my own interest for ID’ing. I would encourage you to do similar ones for your needs. Projects can be very helpful for selective searches! 
For the Neotropical area, I simply use coordinates, combined with lower taxon rank “Tribe” to filter the observations
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?lrank=tribe&nelat=17.9&nelng=-29.5&place_id=any&quality_grade=needs_id&reviewed=false&subview=map&swlat=-28.8&swlng=-110&taxon_id=47157
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Why do we ID unknowns? For the delight of seeing iNat at its best.
On the lower surface of a willow leaf - what … is that? Tiny lime green dahlias.
From way up north in Africa - Algeria, to me way down south in Cape Town, with help from Jeremy, megachile in North America and puppriss in Papua New Guinea
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Excellent statistical analysis.
Yes! The art of discovery as something evolves from unknown to species through the help of others is delightful - even if it occurs stretched out at a snails pace. Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) for naturalists.
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That one went from Unknown to species in two days
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I must confess I don’t look at every single notification I get (except comments!), but I am amazed at how quickly an Unknown that I identify as Fungi (such a hard ID!) goes right to species and becomes Research Grade shortly after that. I should pay more attention to what happens to the Unknowns I give an ID to.
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I just got brave enough to start ID’ing…
Most of my experience and knowledge is with things you’d need to see firsthand (or get super good photos of) to get to genus, and likely need a scope to get to species. And being in caves…they aren’t common on this site. Heck a lot of mine sit not even at research grade 'cause no one has confirmed it (not that I blame them, because you can’t actually tell from a photo, but I do know what they are!)
But I’m trying to learn a lot of above ground stuff these last two years, and I’m finally feeling confident enough to identify things nearby, so I’ve been setting it to “not research grade” and “alabama” so I get to see things I know. I’m doing a couple of ID’s a day or so, which apparently skimming this thread is nothing…but at least it is something? Right now I’m sticking close to what I am confident with, without needing to look it up in my ID books, for the most part.
I do wonder though, what is the point of confirming for the 10th time a red tail hawk or something? I see so many super easy ID’s that have half dozen or more ID’s. Should I be tossing on another ‘yup that’s obviously it’ or is it fine that I ignore those?
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I ignore them. I know some folks ID them as a way to track that species for their own interest, and it certainly doesn’t hurt anything to do. But it’s 100% fine to not go over ones that are already ID’d
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Some people also use observations as flash cards and may cycle through certain species - for them, agreeing is their way of keeping track of which ones ticked the right boxes for them at that point in time. It may be as they get better, more qualify that did not originally. Just another dimension of site use.
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trying it now, it seems slow and takes about 30 seconds to load, or save, and I have fibre :/ I may keep using the explore tab instead but i do like how this link makes it easy to see what i already looked at!
Personally I don’t wait for IDs/comments to save before clicking next because I find they save regardless of whether I wait or not. I’m not sure if everyone has that experience.
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You just add id and keep going, you don’t need to wait, you see the wheel spinning – it means it’s loading, so you can go to the next obs.
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Sometimes I need to withdraw mine, because a much more competent identifier picks up My Wrong (not it isn’t because …) I also Unfollow once I have done my best (no more of that, thanks)
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Yeah, that’s another good reason to check my notifications, because of course I make mistakes and don’t know everything!
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