Reading | Best Results Organizing

Organize Your Life for More Reading Opportunities

Posted on: November 24th, 2025 by Julie Bestry | 10 Comments

If you love reading, summertime means finding a good beach read. Thanksgiving and the December holidays may mean finding books to read for when you finally escape the hubbub. And the darkest part of winter gives you a great excuse to snuggle up with a good book.

However, whether you’re a reader or just want to be one, chances are that you’ve found yourself too busy doing too many things (and probably things you like less than reading) such that you make it to the end of the year with more books on your TBR (To Be Read) pile than your already-read list. And you aren’t be alone.

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS), put out by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing. An analysis published this summer in iScience recently found a downward trend in reading for pleasure over the past 20 years.

In fact, per the New York Times:

Researchers from University College London and the University of Florida examined national data from 2003 to 2023 and found that the share of people who reported reading for pleasure on a given day fell to 16 percent in 2023 from a peak of 28 percent in 2004 — a drop of about 40 percent. It declined around 3 percent each year over those two decades.

I don’t think it’s because people don’t want to read; prior research found that during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, people spent significantly more money on recreational reading material than they had in 2019. Indeed, consumer spending on recreational reading went up almost 23% in 2020 and another 1.8 percent in 2021. When people have the time, they do read.

To borrow from an old phrase, the spirit (to read) is willing, but the flesh (of our eyeballs? of our tushies?) is weak.

People are busy — with work, parental obligations, sandwich-generation obligations to kids and parents, volunteering, and with anxiety over [Paper Doll waves her arms around, frantically] everything going on in the world. Studies, particularly from the pandemic era bear this out, as people living in households without children and people 75 and over read (for pleasure) significantly more than those in the middle categories.

So, as you make up your wish lists for Santa, I’m hoping this post will give you confidence that if you asks for books, you’ll have read them by this time next year.

HAVE BOOKS, WILL TRAVEL (OR SIT)

It’s easier to be inspired to do something specific than something vague. Start by figuring out your options.

Be a Book Collector

Walk around and gather up every unread book in your home. Use a laundry basket, if you have to, and drag everything to a central location. You may have enough for a bedside table, a bookshelf or an entire library, but once you’ve got these all together, divide them into three piles:

books you’re excited to read now — They may be in your favorite genre, by an author you adore, or just books that if you had the time, you’d grab a hot cocoa and a blanket banish everyone while you read them.
books you’re somewhat enthusiastic about, but daunted by — Maybe this is because the book is thick, the writing is complex — hello, 19th-century Russians — or you just don’t have the focus right now, but with some situational support, you could/would embrace the books.
books you have no desire to read — These might be books that once appealed to you, or that were lent or given to you with great glee on the part of the person who loved it and felt it necessary to press it into the hands of everyone (no matter their tastes). You have this random internet stranger’s permission to move the book along (to a friend who is a voracious reader with varied tastes, to used book stores, or to Little Free Libraries).

You may have to rearrange your bookshelves a little, or create a reading shelf out of a deep windowsill or mantle or the back or far side of your desk (with the help of some sturdy bookends). This is where you will keep your To Be Read books. Put the most desirable books front and center so you’ll be more inclined to read them! (The more daunting books can go on a lower shelf for once you’ve tackled the ones with more sparkle.

No books at home? Visit your public library (in person, or digitally) to pick two books that get you excited. (If one fails to spark, you’ve got a backup.)

CREATE A READING ENVIRONMENT

Earlier this month in David Kadavy’s Love Mondays newsletter, in a piece entitled “Why I bought a $600 Lamp,” notes that while, “Lots of people with a scrolling habit would rather have a reading habit,” it’s hard to really break that habit of grabbing your phone to scroll (when you’re bored, when you’re anxious, when you are procrastinating doing something that will take you toward your goals).

Longtime readers have heard me say many times that developing an organized system for being productive, whether at home or in your workspace, requires eliminating friction; as Kadavy says, “you need to remove the resistance.”

Kadavy writes:

Invest in reading. Buy all the things that make reading comfortable, easy, even luxurious. I bought a $600 lamp, which was more than enough to get me to say, “Well, I spent all that money on this reading lamp…”

I’m not going to encourage you spend $600 on a reading lamp; I’d rather buy more books. But what could you more reasonably buy, make, rearrange, or otherwise revise in your environment to make reading more inviting?

What’s your resistance to reading, and how can you get rid of it?

Don’t assume that the space you’ve assigned yourself for reading, by default, is a good reading space. For example, I have a bonus room that the blueprints for my apartment designate as “the library.” There’s one overhead light, a door to the balcony, and a window. However, the door is mostly glass, so during cold months, it’s chilly, and during much of the rest of the year, it’s too hot and sunny. I never read in there.

Conversely, the outer “wall” of my kitchen cabinet that faces my carpeted dining room-turned-office has ideal lighting, and I often enjoy sitting on the floor with my back to that end of the kitchen. I’m similarly comfortable reading when sitting criss-cross-applesauce at my desk chair, turned 90° from my desk and computer.

What would make your reading environment more inviting?

Seating — First, where are you comfortable sitting to read? Some people can dive into a book anywhere, while others need a squishy sofa or chair. Conduct an experiment, and every day for a week, pop into a different seating option in your home. You might be surprised to find reading comes naturally in an unexpected location, like the bottom of your steps or in your guest bedroom.
Ambiance — Can you read in the middle of a coffeehouse or university library? Are you able to delve into a story while your kids are running circles around you? Or do you need to control the environment so that you can concentrate? There’s no right or wrong, but the more easily you can fall into your book, the more time you’ll spend reading rather than adjusting the variables.
Lighting — I’m an overhead-lighting girlie. My mother and my sister can’t stand light from overhead, and prefer lamps. I have clients who prefer soft lighting, and have known a few who prefer to read in the dark with the adult equivalent of a night light.

Have you ever seen these LED neck lights? For under twenty dollars, you can get six levels of brightness and three different colors of light from a rechargeable, bendable light that fits around your neck!

For readers with sensitive eyes, having a reading light that comes from your direction toward the book, is key, and more comfortable than the more traditional overhead approach of the descendants of clip-on Itty-Bitty Book Lights.

Bookmarks — It may seem small, but an appealing bookmark might be exactly what you need to bring you back to your book. Sure, you can dog-ear a (non-library) book or use a CVS receipt to mark your page, but a bookmark that reflects your passion, whether it’s kittens or Doctor Who, fine art or a silly catch phrase, is likely to level up your reading experience, and motivate you to get back to your book.
Beverages — Depending on your personal style, you may prefer to read in a snack-free environment or devour sweet or salty goodies while reading. Paper Doll does not judge. However, if you’re developing a cozy reading habitat, consider investing in a corded or cordless coffee (or tea) warmer.

DEVELOP A READING HABIT BY SYNCING TIME AND SPACE

In her recent piece, The 10-10-10 Plan for Reading 50 Books a Year, Laura Vanderkam suggested finding forty minutes per day to read, six days a week, to achieve 240 minutes (four hours) of reading per week, or possibly about an average-sized book each week.

Of course, finding forty minutes in your day — when you’ve got in-person meetings and Zooms and carpool leaves very little buffer space in your calendar — might seem impossible. Beyond the larger issue of time management, Vanderkam’s 10-10-20 approach says that in lieu of finding 40 consecutive minutes, get the same effect with smaller doses of reading time.

She suggests finding two ten-minute blocks you can comfortably commit to and put them on your schedule, and then add a 20-minute reading slot before bed.

If you feel that you truly don’t have forty minutes of potential reading time in your day, whether all at once or in chunks, I challenge you to set an alarm on your phone to remind you to put your phone down or on airplane mode for a fixed amount of time (say, a 25-minute Pomodoro), and set another alarm to let you know when your self-commitment is complete. Chances are good that you merely replaced doom scrolling with reading.

Scheduling the time is one thing; sticking to it is another. If you do all of your reading on an e-reader, or in an app on your phone, you’ve only got one thing to keep at hand. However, if you (like Paper Doll) prefer the heft of a traditional book, there are definitely ways to use those books to tempt you.

And if you’re never without a book, at least you never have that excuse for not being able to read.

Keep a book in the kitchen and read while you wait for the coffee and your breakfast to be ready. (If the book is good, you’ll likely to continue to read while eating.
Place a book on your vanity to read while you dry your hair. (Obviously, there are hygiene concerns with leaving a book in the bathroom, but having a book in one hand while drying your hair with the other not only evenly builds up the muscles in your arms, but it gives you something to do while you can’t listen to anything.)
Tuck a book in your purse or work bag to read:
- on your commute (if you’re taking public transportation)
- in the driveway or parking lot (if you arrive at your appointment early, or — and here’s a nifty idea, to read when you return to your car before driving home or to your next location!)
- when someone (your doctor, the friend meeting you for lunch, etc.) is inevitably late
Keep a book in the trunk of your car — Imagine you get a flat or some other vehicular annoyance and you won’t merely be waiting ten minutes, but perhaps an hour. A book you can dip in and out of — perhaps a collection of short stories or a memoir that doesn’t require that you recall details from chapter to chapter — is perfect.
Stash a book under the crib, next to the changing table, or anywhere in your child’s room so whether you’re called to rock an infant or keep a toddler company until they nod off, you don’t have to count tiles on the ceiling. While we tend to sleep in the dark, it seems a lot of kids nod off in a soft glow, so you may find that you can read either a traditional book or a phone/e-reader.
Keep a small stack of books for professional reading in your workspace. — Most of the above ideas are best used for fiction or light reading, but if you’re trying to keep up with reading in your professional life, you’re most likely to pay attention when you’re in your workspace. Put three books within reach of your desk. Use reading time as a transition: read for ten or fifteen minutes before you leave for lunch, or spend your last 15 minutes of the workday (or fifteen minutes after your work is done) to get ahead on reading professional journals or books. Read with tape flags or a highlighter nearby to capture important concepts.
Load audiobooks and ebooks onto your phone so you can listen when you can’t look. (It’s hard to read print while folding laundry or walking on the treadmill.) I’m not going to get in the middle of the debate over whether listening counts as reading. But I will suggest you check your public library for access to audiobooks (and ebooks); even if you prefer reading text, if you’re stuck for a while without the book you want to read, catching up with a few audio (or virtual) chapters will keep your committed to your reading plan.

Yes, that’s a lot of different places to stash books. You don’t necessarily have to keep moving your books from place to place; you can keep a few different books at the ready in various places.

If you only read fiction, it may be difficult (or impossible) to read multiple books simultaneously, especially if they’re in the same genre. However, reading a novel before bed and a non-fiction book in small bites throughout the day may keep your brain sharp.

I generally read one fiction book and two non-fiction books concurrently, with each assigned a different “home.” It’s less like trying to keep the plots and characters of Grey’s Anatomy, Chicago Med, Doc, and Brilliant Minds all straight in your head, and more like keeping up with both The Diplomat and The Great British Bake-Off.

MOTIVATE YOURSELF TO READ MORE

Zig Before You Zag — You Don’t Have to Tackle Reading Head-On

One of my friends is an eager reader, but due to work has strayed from the habit. However, he really enjoys Shakespeare, and goes to monthly communal Shakespeare readings where participants take turns reading sections of the plays. While that counts as reading, it wasn’t helping him tackle his backlog.

Last year, I got him Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, a memoir of sorts by Dame Judi Dench, where she regales the interviewer with tales of her decades of performing Shakespeare on stage.

The idea was that independently reading something easy and fun, but in the same neighborhood as his monthly group readings, made the leap easier.

If you plan to start reading books by a particular author (or on a non-fiction topic), try short stories or essays to whet your appetite. Be creative. If you want to carve out time to read a biography of the Founding Fathers, pay closer attention to who’s who and what they do in Hamilton, or musical grandpa, 1776!

If you haven’t read books with long chapters since college and feel wobbly, try picking books with short chapters. Ask your friendly librarian for some recommendations, or pick titles from 50 Books With Short Chapters at Keeping Up with the Penguins.

The key is that if you want to read, but aren’t feeling up to the task, it’s OK to find a back door. With classics, read a character description on Wikipedia. With modern books, read professional reviews, which are far less likely to reveal spoilers than reader reviews.

Give Yourself a Challenge

Just as with any habit you want to establish, sometimes you need to give yourself a push. I participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge annually, setting a goal for how many books I’ll read each year. If I hit my goal, I increase it for the next year; if I fail, I set the same goal again. (I’ve been stuck at 39 books for a few year’s running.) I’m often reading three books concurrently, so my reading achievements lag for a while and then jump forward.

Because I not only log, but review, each book after I complete it, it forces me to really think about what I’ve read. This makes it more likely that I will remember the book (for my own purposes and to recommend to friends), but it also makes the challenge more real to me.

Other reading challenges encourage not just volume of books read, but types. If you’re looking for a challenge that’s more, well, challenging to the diversity of your reading endeavors, check out The Candid Cover’s 2025 Reading Challenges: The Ultimate List.

The More (Readers), the Merrier

Join the Club

Joining a book club is one way to inspire you to invest more of your time in reading. In small groups, you may feel obligated to speak up and put your take on a book (perhaps one you didn’t like) on display; if you’re an introvert, you may find the whole idea distasteful. However, there are a variety of book club options that don’t require you to meet in person; these existed before 2020, but since the pandemic, online book clubs have proliferated.

Whether you prefer time travel or romantasy, classics or graphic novels, business books or psychology, there’s a group somewhere that’s reading and discussing what you like to read. Just use your favorite search engine (or AI, cough, if you must) to point you in the direction of a group — in person or virtual — up for discussing your preferred author or genre. Or try the suggestions in these articles:

The 15 Best Online Book Clubs to Join (Reedsy)

These Are the Best Online Book Clubs to Read More (Good Housekeeping)

What are the Best Free Online Book Clubs for Adults in 2025? (BookBrowse)

Read Along

Of course, not all book discussions are book clubs. You may want to look for something billed as a “read along.”

My favorite (classic) novelist is Jane Austen. I’ve read all of her novels (multiple times), but this year, I’ve participated in the Austen Connection’s Jane Austen Read Along in honor of 2025 being the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth.

Janet Lewis Saidi (going by the non-de-plume Plain Jane), author of the recently released Jane Austen: The Original Romance Novelist, is our fearless leader.

We do “close reading” of a handful of chapters each week; we’re rounding out the year having just hit the middle of our final book, Persuasion. Plain Jane’s weekly essays are a lively mix of her personal wisdom, erudite academic resources, and pop culture references, and subject matter experts share wisdom on related topics and diverse perspectives.

In the comments section each week, we heartily discuss and debate everything from geography to the in-joke of “shrubberies,” from why every man seems to be Charles or Williams or Thomas to (and I have to admit I think I started the whole kerfuffle) which of Austen’s heroes and cads are the most, um, bed-able. (My take? In the novels, it’s Mr. Knightley from Emma. In the adaptations, it’s Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy in 1995’s Pride and Prejudice.)

A read-along provides the benefits of an in-person book club, but doesn’t obligate you to pipe up. You can just, quite literally, read along, reading the book, the leader’s thoughts, and the comments. But you may find delight in eventually sharing your thoughts.

Shhhh, We’re Reading

Some people want company when they are reading, but don’t want to have to actually interact with anyone, or at least not interact about the book. Have you heard of the Silent Book Club, sometimes (not-so) jokingly called Introvert Happy Hour?

If grabbing ten minutes for yourself here-and-there makes you feel unproductive because you really crave serious reading time but the people in your life don’t respect your need for isolated reading time, Silent Book Club might be a better bet. From the site:

Silent Book Club is a global community of readers with 2,000 chapters in 60+ countries. There’s no assigned reading — it’s bring your own book.

More than a million members gather in person, online, and in destinations around the world to read together and swap stories. All readers are welcome!

Celebrating it’s tenth year, Silent Book Club gives you the opportunity to show up, socialize or not (with friends or strangers) for a bit, and then read for a solid block of time. I found three different groups within a dozen miles of my home!

Read more in the blog post, Highlights from 10 Years of Silent Book Club.

Over the last 18 years, Paper Doll has covered a variety of reading-related posts, including:

When was the last time you got lost (and found yourself) in a good book?

Paper Doll Plays Ice Cream Man: Cool Organizing and Productivity Treats for Hot Days

Posted on: July 7th, 2025 by Julie Bestry | 10 Comments

We’ve managed — perhaps with a few bumps and bruises to our productivity — to make it through one-half of the year.

Perhaps you’ve reached your goals or are on our way toward them. Maybe the temperatures and the general atmosphere in the world these days leaves you feeling indolent, and the last thing you want to think about today is striving toward yet another goal or completing another task.

I get it.

We all deserve a little fun. So today’s post is like a Popsicle on a sweltering day. There are no systems for you to implement, and no heavy-duty academic research to study. Instead, just think of today’s Paper Doll post as the ice cream truck driving through your neighborhood to make your week a little sweeter and your mood a little lighter with some surprising treats.

MOD PROTECT

Earlier this year, I wrote a five-part series on using timers to help yourself be more productive. In case you missed it, feel free to read the links below to get caught up.

But again, this is an ice cream truck; just take what you find yummy.

In part 3 of the series, when we discussed tangible timers, I shared my love of the Time Timer MOD and all of its gorgeous styles, including the Time Timer Mod Home Edition,

the MOD Home Metallic Edition,

and the various durations of the MOD Education Editions.

I handle my devices pretty gingerly and rarely worry about bonking them on the ground, but not everyone lives in an almost-entirely carpeted (hello, late 1970s construction!) apartment. Some folks have kids, or spouses or co-workers who behave like kids, or pets who tend to knock things on the floor.

Time Timer understands the frustration that comes with rough-and-tumble living. While there are already pretty protective covers in a variety of styles to cuddle the Time Timer MOD editions, they’ve now come out out with a new super-protective line: two different “fun and functional” Time Timer MOD+ Protective Cases.

Both versions partner a whimsical personality and hardy protection with (what I think is already) the niftiness of Time Timers.

Meet Bunny and Tread.

Time Timer MOD + Protect Case Bunny

Protect Case — Bunny is friendly and playful, and will appeal to little and big kids, alike. Whether you’re in kindergarten helping to develop little minds, working in various environments with with sensitive souls or neurodivergent brains, or just enjoy anything that adds something charming and fanciful to your workday and time management struggles, take a peek.

Why not serve up a fun-but-sturdy embrace for the visual time cues that keep kids and adults from staying time-blind?

Bunny is brightly colored, soft, and tailor-made for those who would prefer getting help transitioning between tasks, monitoring their own (or others’) screen time, or completing homework (or office work) from a sweet, gentle character rather than a garish, digital taskmaster.

Say hi to Bunny. (Hi, Bunny!)

Bunny measures 5.1″ high x 4.1″ wide by 2.4″ deep. The soft, removable case is made of light blue silicone, and, as you can see above, faintly bunny-shaped, creating a playful touch to surround the Time Timer MOD.

Time Timer has tested the Bunny Protect Case’s drop protection to 5 feet. So, whether you’re using it in an academic or play setting where tiny humans may drop or throw the Time Timer MOD, or you or your co-workers or family members take time-based stresses out on small, (mostly) inanimate objects, the Protect Case -— Bunny can handle it.

The Bunny’s soft silicone makes it easy for tiny hands to grip without slippage, so there’s no need to worry that your MOD investment will be lost in a smash-pow-kerplunk moment! Parents, teachers, therapists, colleagues, and tiny humans should all be delighted by the protective nature and cute appearance of the bunny.

On it’s own, the Protect Case — Bunny is $14.95 at the Time Timer website.

Additionally, you can purchase the Time Timer Rainbow Wheel MOD + Protect Case Bunny bundle for 39.95.

Time Timer notes the combined MOD and Bunny protective case bundle is:

Focused on Time Awareness — As discussed at length in my blog post series on timers, an analog approach to time helps make time visible and “real” to children and others with a less-than-concrete feel for the flow of time. The Time Timer Rainbow Wheel MOD’s rainbow-colored disk assigns a color to each five-minute increment, adding a clear, colorful cue to help discern how much time remains. This has positive implications for helping achieve smooth transitions and emotional regulation.
Especially supportive for neuro-diverse individuals — The product was created with children with ADHD, sensory sensitivities, and autism in mind, implementing a soothing, calming design.
Sensory-friendly — As Time Timer notes, “with soft bunny ears and gentle colors make time less scary and more approachable for young learners.” The sensory-friendly materials can help children who self-sooth primarily through touch.
Designed for the hard knocks of real life — As noted, when nestled inside the Bunny, the MOD Rainbow Wheel withstands tumbles, tosses, and falls up to 5 feet. (That’s almost an entire Paper Doll!)

The Time Timer Rainbow Wheel MOD + Protective Case — Bunny bundle includes One Year Premium Access to Time Timer® App.

Time Timer MOD + Protect — Tread

The Bunny is cute, but not everyone is seeking fluffy bunny mode.

Do you, your tiny humans, whimsical teens, or colleagues operate in a more rough-and-ready, active environment? If so, you or they may prefer something with a more hearty or rugged appearance.

Tread is a durable silicone case styled as a beefy tire, such as you’d see on an earth mover or big truck. It’s tailor-made for active households and busy classrooms, but is equally at home in therapy centers and workplaces where cute+tough is the right style choice. It measures 4.2″ wide by 4.2″ high by 2.4″ deep.

When I first saw the Time Timer MOD Protective Case — Tread, my immediate thought was that Workman MJ and his mom need this!

If you’re not on TikTok, you may not know Workman MJ, who first came to fame when his mom sought help convincing her toddler that workers take naps:

Over the course of just a few days, all sorts of workmen and women around the country came to her aid and filmed TikToks showing themselves taking naps after lunch — in their trucks and in various safe environments — illustrating to MJ (and all the other tiny workmen and workwomen) the importance of fueling and resting oneself and ones tools. And hey, that echoes Paper Doll‘s advice of about nap-taking, like in:

Take a Break — How Breaks Improve Health and Productivity

Take a Break for Productivity — The International Perspective

If you’re a TikTok aficionado, find your bliss watching Workman MJ and his Mom; their precious videos of MJ-narrated interactions with various workers while learning about their tools and skills are reminiscent of early Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers vignettes, and MJ’s mom (Jessica C. Lee) has even written a book, Workman MJ Takes a Nap, about their “it takes a village” nap experience.

But back to Tread.

The bumpy, black rubber tire treads add a grippiness that makes the MOD easy for small hands to grab without dropping and adds an extra layer of hearty durability to the Time Timer MOD. Use it at work impress your co-workers with a nod to your “tough approach” to problem solving, or take it to the gym so your Time Timer MOD is safe no matter how rambunctious your workout. Either way, it’s a great companion for workspaces, workouts, or on-the-go time management. (Yes, it’s primarily made for kids, but why let them have all the fun?)

The Tread case is made of soft-touch silicone (easily cleaned by wiping with a damp cloth), and has been drop-tested from a height of 5 feet.

On its own, Tread is $14.95 from Time Timer and you can pair it with any MOD already in rotation in your school, office, or home.

However, if you’re the kind who always orders a combo meal, get the Time Timer MOD + Protect Case – Tread together in a rugged bundle for $39.95. It includes the grey 60-minute MOD with a classic red disk timer and the Tread protective case.

As with the Bunny bundle, you a great, confidence-boosting visual timer that supports the executive function needs of children and adults with ADHD, sensory processing challenges, and autism, as well as all sorts of people who need time management support, plus a hearty case that protects the timer from boo-boos.

And let’s face it, that tire tread pattern offers a cool tactile experience for those needing a fidget toy to support ongoing focus and reduce anxiety. Like the Bunny bundle, the MOD + Tread bundle includes One Year Premium Access to Time Timer® App.

All Time Timer products include a One-Year 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

ZIP NOTES & DISPENSERS

We all love sticky notes. Whether we use a tiny sticky note for a label, a standard one for a list or a reminder, or a heavy duty one for intense climate situations, it’s become essential to have a method that just sticks without need for paper clips or staples.

However, sticky notes aren’t perfect. We usually have to settle for one uniform size or purchase multiples different sizes.

But wouldn’t it be cool if we could have a sticky note of any length we desired, whenever we wanted?

Thanks to the Zip Notes Executive Sticky Note Dispenser and Holder, we can.

Zip Notes

Invented by Edison, New Jersey-based Victor Technology, these Zip Notes might initially be indistinguishable from Post-its® and their (often less-adhesive) knockoffs, but there are some significant differences:

- - Zip Notes come on a roll — Taking a cue from old-timey adding machine paper rolls or paper towels, Zip Notes come on an 150-inch roll of adhesive-backed paper.

This format is cost-effective and reduces paper waste. One roll of Zip Notes is the equivalent of 600 regular 3″ x 3″ sticky notes!

As much as I love a good Post-it®, there are times when I don’t necessarily have the size I want. For example, on the side of my desk right now, I have a twelve-pack of the Post-it® mini (1 3/8″ x 1 7/8″) Greener Notes.

They’re perfect when I want to scribble one or two words on a sticky note and use it as a label for a pile of papers. Conversely, for most purposes, a standard 3″ x 3″ sticky note works fine, but when you have a lot to write, it’s always nice to have a 3″ x 5″ sticky note on hand, because it has ample room, and you can turn it vertically to create a list.

But what if, in the course of an afternoon, you have several short, medium, and long sticky notes to write? You could keep all different size sticky notes in your drawer, but with Zip Notes, you wouldn’t have to, and you’ll never waste paper with a “continued on next note” situation.

Just hold down the button until the sticky note paper unspools to the length you prefer and tear it off. Suddenly, you have a note with a customized length!

- - Zip Notes have an adhesive strip running down the center of the note — The unique design of the Zip Notes, with a central strip of adhesive, prevents the edges from curling and allows for flexibility with adherence wherever you need it: at work, at school, or at home. As with any good sticky note, the Zip Notes are re-positionable.

Zip Notes come in three colors: pink, blue, and yellow, each for about $8.99/roll, either directly from the product page at Victor Technologies or from Amazon.

Zip Notes work in tandem with three types of dispensers.

Zip Notes Executive Dispenser

The navy blue battery-operated Zip Notes Executive Dispenser dispenses the exact length of note you need so you can customize the length of your notes. It’s available directly from the Victor Technology website for $24.99 or for 23.99 at Amazon, in case you want to take advantage of your Prime Shipping. (Note, the photo on Amazon appears to be grey, but it’s apparently just a poor photo; it’s only available in blue.)

The Executive Dispenser is a compact 5.0” wide x 4.5” deep x 5.5” high, and takes up barely more room on your desktop than a stack of sticky notes. It requires two AA batteries, which are included.

Zip Notes Administrator Dispenser

The Zip Notes Administrator Dispenser can rest on your desk or be mounted to a wall, and measures 4.1” wide x 3.6” deep x 6.5” high. Similar to the Executive version, it takes two AA batteries (included).

The Administrator Dispenser is $24.99 at Victor Technology and $23.95 at Amazon.

Zip Notes Manual Dispenser

In addition to the two battery-operated versions, there is a manual Zip Notes dispenser. Without the nifty “zhhhh” sound and the button to push, it’s not quite as cool as its battery-operated counterparts, but at $9.99 for the burgundy dispenser (measuring 3.5 deep x 3.8 wide x 4.5 high), it might be handy to keep in your mobile office kit. Just pull to the desired note length and rip.

The Zip Notes Executive Sticky Notes and Dispensers are a neato combination of a different type of sticky note and a different way of dispensing them. If you’re GenX, you may be thinking, “It’s two mints in one!

ANXIETY BOOKSHELF

It’s possible that only my professional organizer colleagues, Paper Mommy, and I will appreciate this product line, but Anxiety Bookshelf is a cute way to incorporate the soothing aspects of organization into your life without having to invest your heart and soul into downsizing or systematizing.

What Is the Anxiety Bookshelf?

The conceit of the Anxiety Bookshelf is that when you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can shake the miniature bookshelf (which is actually a latched, hinged, window unto a bookshelf-like shadow box) to free all of the miniature “books” from their safe perches and knock them to the “floor.”

Then open the hinged cover, take up the little books, and re-shelve them as you see fit. Why? To allow yourself to create a sense of order when things in your life are feeling disordered.

Arrange alphabetically by title or author, keep them in genres, or go rogue like the Home Edit crew and organize the books by color. (OK, please don’t do that. It gives me hives.)

Start by buying the actual Anxiety Bookshelf.

The original Anxiety Bookshelf — the hand-painted bookshelf cases come in eight colors: brown (natural wood), white, pink, black, yellow, blue, green, and purple.

It measures 9.8″ wide x 7.8″ high by 2.7″ deep, and comes with 260 miniature books, from classics like George Orwell’s 1984 and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to modern titles like John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. While the majority of the books are novels, there are memoirs and non-fiction titles, too. (You can see the titles by scrolling down to the bottom of this page.)

The original Anxiety Bookshelf, with a full complement of miniature books, is $54.98.

For the same $54.98 price, you can also purchase the DIY Anxiety Bookshelf, which comes with the bookshelf, white foam book block inserts, and sheets of 264 book cover stickers.

Alternatively, you can buy an empty bookcase in two sizes:
- The full-size (empty) bookcase is $39.95.
- The small (empty) bookcase is $19.95

and then fill the shelves with whichever of the various Anxiety Bookshelf book collections you prefer, at various price points (or a set of random mini books in 60, 120, 180, or 260 book counts).

Obviously, I’d pick the Jane Austen collection to start, before branching out.

You can even customize the books you want and order from one to 10 different titles, starting at $5.90 for one-to-three titles, up to $18.90 for ten customized books. If you’re an author, you could even get your own mini books for your bookcase!

Depending on how much anxiety you’d like to soothe or how many miniatures you need in your life, there are discounts for multiple bookshelf purchases. Save $10 on a purchase of two; save $15 if you buy three; save $20 if you purchase 4 bookshelves so that you can pretend you are Belle in Beast’s library.

There’s even a Pocket Anxiety Bookshelf for anyone who feels the urge to self-soothe by organizing tiny books on-the-go, like during breaks at school or work. It comes in six colors: (TARDIS) blue, black, green, white, pink, and brown, and has just three little shelves. It measures 2.8” wide x 3.7” high x 1.9” deep and comes with 60 books. The Pocket version is currently $29.95.

In addition, for those seeking some bookish solace, Anxiety Bookshelf has some adorable Room Box items with the same latch and glass front (for safe shaking), in case you want to re-arrange a cozier space, available with or without the miniature books.

Is This An Open-and-Shut (Book) Case?

For each of the bookcases, you can open the bookcase; there’s a latch on the side of the bookshelf for a secure closure before you shake the books off the shelf.

However, you can’t open the miniature books because (duh!) they aren’t actually printed texts. Rather, each “book” is a block .87″ high x .55″ wide x .12″-thick blank foam with a book cover sticker wrapped around it.

So, although you can’t open the books, you can customize the ones you want, as noted above, and arrange them in whatever way will soothe your frazzled nerves.

Isn’t This Just Clutter?

Maybe?

At first glance, this might just look yet another (cute) knick-knack destined to become clutter, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend this for everyone. However, the various iterations of the Anxiety Bookshelf may greatly appeal to certain subsets of the populace, including:

people who like closed-end crafts, as opposed to projects that go on forever. Even with the DIY version, once you apply all the stickers to create the books and shelve the books, there’s no more “work” to do.
those who are soothed by being able to control their environments on a small scale — because how often can you sort your junk drawer to calm yourself? (But hey, when you do, be sure to check out Is Your Junk Drawer a Drunk Drawer? 3 Steps to An Organized Junk Drawer for guidance.)
those who are soothed by closed-ended organizing projects and just need a short-term meditative organization project
folks who like to create customized displayable art that can also be played with rather than merely admired.

When I was little, Paper Mommy and I worked together (by which I mean that I read the instructions and she did the handiwork) to create adorable little “mouse house” shadowboxes with intricate detailing. I find the little bookshelves and miniature books similarly charming.

But I also appreciate a product made specifically for the purpose of soothing anxiety of dealing with disarray in one’s personal world and the world at large. As a Certified Professional Organizer® — in fact, I just recertified for the sixth time since 2007), having helped clients with organizing and productivity for the past 24 years, my work doesn’t just help my clients; it’s therapeutic for me, too.

When something is stressing me out in my own life, I’ve been known to dump out my purse or lingerie drawer, sometimes to downsize, but usually just to create a little order and maintain some control.

I admit, this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, from novelist Lucinda Rosenfeld:

“We order our salad dressing on the side because we’re control freaks. We’d like to control you. Because we can’t, we control lettuce.”

Often, clients contact me because they’re anxious about organizing. But quite often, a focused approach to organizing, even (or especially) on a tiny scale, helps conquer anxiety and create just as much inner peace as meditation or a walk in nature. Sometimes, it helps just to be able to control something. Even lettuce. Even tiny books.

Although I never recommend purchasing a product, whether functional or aesthetic, unless you both need and want it, sometimes, it’s just nice to know what’s out there. You may not chase the ice cream truck down the street, but isn’t it nice to hear the music and know the truck waiting?

Finally, for Paper Mommy, from whom I learned my love for all things tiny, here’s Anxiety Bookshelf’s Mini Book Cart, available on its own, or with 60, 120, or 180 books.

I bet it could hold quiet a few miniature Popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, and Nutty Buddy ice cream cones.

Take Note: Paper Doll’s Guide to Organized Note-Taking in Lectures & Presentations (Part 2)

Posted on: February 10th, 2025 by Julie Bestry | 12 Comments

In last week’s post, Take Note: Paper Doll’s Guide to Organized Note-Taking (Part 1), we looked at the variety of situations in which we might take notes. Of course, it’s instinctual to think of classroom notes or notes in meetings first, but as we reviewed, we take notes all the time in other ways.

To review, we take notes on other inbound information:

non-academic learning and skill acquisition
at conferences, in webinars, and at professional lectures
in collaborative meetings
situationally, such as when we’re learning about a diagnosis or a new project, or we’re fielding information captured on a phone call
in legal and financial situations, such as when conversing with professionals providing guidance
when we’re gathering quickly-changing information when dealing with a crisis situation

In the comments for that post, my colleague Linda Samuels described the process as “Listen, capture, and engage” and that’s exactly the case when someone (a lecturer, a presenter, a group of people in a meeting) are speaking.

However, we’re not always listening and porting someone else’s spoken thoughts into our notes.

Quite often, the categories of note-taking involve figuring out for ourselves what is important and worth capturing, such as when we do research or plan travel. And sometimes, the notes we take are completely of our own devising, such as when we are writing fiction or music, designing, inventing, or otherwise capturing our own thoughts.

So, Linda is right, note-taking can be about listening (to others or ourselves) or reading, capturing, and engaging with the material. Ultimately, it’s about what they said, what they wrote. and what we thought (and continue to think).

Our notes are extensions of our brains, and the more organized they can be, the better able we will be to use that information, whether it’s to get better grades, further our careers, choose the best course of action, or create something masterful.

Today, we’re going to explore some of the best methods for organizing our note-taking.

NOTE-TAKING METHODS WHEN SOMEONE IS SPEAKING

We’re going to start with the category we think of most often when conceptualizing taking notes — when someone else is imparting information verbally.

In these situations, you generally have little-to-no sense of what information is coming next (unless the speaker has provided an outline or detailed agenda) and — unless you’re watching a recorded presentation — you have no control over the speed at which the information is coming at you. Common situations include:

In a class lecture (whether in-person or virtually)
When taking a webinar (whether live or recorded)
At a conference (whether in crowded plenary sessions, like keynotes, or smaller breakout sessions)
In a brainstorming session or meeting at work

As we look at methods of note-taking in these situations, we’ll begin with text-based notes, and then look beyond at notes that employ graphics and symbols.

TEXT-BASED NOTE-TAKING METHODS

Sentence Method

Have you ever been in a course or at a conference where you’ve been given no sense of the outline of material to come? It’s hard to take notes without context.

If the information is coming out firehouse-style, with a rapid-fire, fast-and-furious assault of information (and often abbreviations or unfamiliar buzzwords), the best thing you can do is to accept that you will not get the necessary context, and treat each thing you hear as existing on its own little island.

Literally, each new thought or fact that you hear gets its own sentence/line in your notes. If you can transcribe it into your own words, do so; if you haven’t a clue, start the line with some quotation marks, write as much as you can of what you hear in a sentence, close the quotation marks, and put an asterisk (or whatever symbol you prefer) in the left margin, to remind you to come back for it later.

If you write each sentence sequentially, with a break between lines (skipping a line on paper, or double- or even triple-spacing on your screen), you’ll at least capture the essentials and give yourself space to revise and make it make sense once you do get context. That context may come either from continued lecturing, from reading a textbook or associated PDFs, going to office hours with your professor or a one-on-one meeting with your supervisor, or speaking with your fellow students or colleagues

The disadvantage of the sentence method, which is not very different from most people’s default “try to get everything down” method is that until you go back to review and flesh out your notes (and perhaps add context from your readings or later discussions), the notes themselves don’t really indicate which points are major vs. trivial.

The Sentence Method is equally applicable to analog or digital note-taking. Just remember, as we discussed last week, that digital note-taking temps you to transcribe rather than to cognitively process, making it less likely that you’ll learn as you take notes.

Outlining Method

Outlining is one step up from the sentence method in terms of organization. You know what a formal outline looks like:

I. Overarching categories start at the left.

A. Sub-categories of the overarching category are indented further right, and are indicated with a capital letter.

1. 1. Examples or subcategories are numbered and indented even more.
  2. More examples are further numbered.

a. Further sub-breakdowns get lowercase letters

b. And if you need to indent further, you can start using bullet points.

B. And here’s your fabulous second sub-category under the first point

II. Your second major overarching category goes here, and the process continues.

Formal outlining tends to work well if the speaker is organized, if you already have some familiarity with the topic, and especially if you’re provided guidance in advance. In a history course, for example, you’re likely to know that you’ll need to track political, economic, and social factors. In a science course, the material is usually presented from top-level down to the specifics.

A more informal outlining system will focus on putting the super-mostest-importantest stuff toward the left, indenting somewhat for sub-categories, and indenting more for examples or less important things. When you’re informally outlining, it takes some effort to get a sense of the speaker’s intent to create your sense own of hierarchy.

An outlining method works best when you have enough time to consider and make decisions about organizing the information as it is spoken. Of course, if you’re not entirely sure about the information coming at you (or the person lecturing isn’t particularly organized), neither method of outlining is likely to be much superior to the sentence method.

Cornell Note-Taking System

When I arrived at Cornell University in August 1985, I had never heard of the Cornell Note-Taking Method. About a week into my freshman year, I sat in a biology lab where a teaching assistant taught us the basics, and (as I inhaled the scent of what I assumed was formaldehyde and anticipated having to be cruel to a poor, departed cousin of Kermit) I assumed that this note-taking method was specific to my school.

I had no idea that it had been devised 30+ years earlier by Cornell professor of developmental education, Walter Pauk, who made the method famous in How to Study in College.

The Cornell Note-Taking Method requires dividing each page into three sections. (N.B. — remember that abbreviation from last week? — some people refer to a fourth section, which is the top of the page, where you reference what the notes are about. You could call it the topic line or the subject line. However, it seems a bit too obvious to discuss in depth.)

First, the majority of the page is divided into two vertical columns or sections, with the left (Cue) column taking up about a third of the page and the right (Notes) column taking up about two-thirds.

Sticklers would say to divide it as 30% for Cue and 70% for Notes. In this regard, Paper Doll is not a stickler. If this were an 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of notebook paper, the Cue column might be 2 1/2″ and the Notes column 6″.

The bottom of the page is not divided vertically, but spans the entire page horizontally. It’s used as a summary section. I’ve seen some articles require that the section should be 2 inches high, but again, I’m not a stickler. (I attended college before there were many pre-created styles of Cornell Notes notebooks. I just eyeballed everything. Nobody will put you in note-taking jail if your lines aren’t straight.)

How does it all work?

The Notes Column — In this section, take notes by whatever method you can — sentence method, outlining method, your default note-taking style, etc. The key is to record the lecture or presentation as faithfully and meaningfully as possible here. Quoting the words Linda Samuels used at the start of this post, this is where you listen and capture.
The Cue Column — As you take notes, the cue column will largely remain empty, but as soon as possible after the lecture or the presentation, re-read your notes and declutter them. Reduce the material in the Notes column to their essence. What is it you absolutely need to know? This is where you engage!

In an academic setting, you might use the cues to “recite, review, and reflect” (in Pauk’s words) as you study. You can use the Cue section to write prompting questions to help you quiz yourself later.

At a professional conference, these might be ideas you intend to put into practice, such as marketing methods or software platforms you intend to try.

The Summary Section — This area gives you the chance to sum up the key information from that page in just a few sentences.

Cornell Note-Taking is best for academic notes, conference notes, or any time you’re focused on learning or key aspects of something presented by someone else, as it encourages intentional notet active recall. (You can also use it for taking notes on study material you read.)

Understand that it will be rare for the end of the page to sync up with the end a concept. That’s OK; use the Summary Section to summarize the concepts on that page.

You might also wish to try the Cornell Note-Taking Method in collaborative meeting notes, and use the cue column for action items that are your responsibility.

To learn more about the Cornell Note-Taking Method, Cornell University offers a free public-facing course called Note-Taking Strategies.

Products to Help the Cornell Note-Taking Method

You can absolutely try the Cornell Note-Taking Method with a sheet of notebook or bank paper and a writing implement and just free-draw the dividing lines; a ruler or any available straight-edge will perfect your lines. But if you (or your favorite student) are more likely to commit to a method when there are fun school or office supplies to use, you can add a variety of goodies to your note-taking arsenal. For example:

Cornell Notes Notebook — rustic cover, 8 1/2″ x 11″, lined, 120 sheets, $6.99

Oxford Tops FocusNotes —8 1/2″ x 11″, 50 sheets, three-hole punched, $6.06

Oxford FocusNotes — 6 ” 9″, 80 pages, top spiral bound steno version (good for lefties), $6.14

Mochi Things Pieces of Moment Cornell Notebooks — 7 1/2″ x 10″ pages, unlined notes section, grid summary section, only 26 pages (!) but 8 gorgeous designer colors, $6.95

Horizontal-style iQ Organizer Tablet — 8 1/2″ x 6″, landscape, 80 sheets, $5.99

Of course, if you prefer the digital approach, a number of digital platforms have Cornell templates built in:

Evernote’s Cornell Notes Template
Notion’s Cornell Notes Template
Incomptech Cornell Lined Graph Paper PDF Generator (super-cool and customizable)

How to Make a Cornell Notes Template with Word
Goodnotes Free Cornell Notes Template (for iPads and tablets)

VISUAL AND HYBRID NOTE-TAKING METHODS

Some people (like Paper Doll) think in words; in fact, I think in outlines, with Roman numerals, capital letters, Latin numbers, and lowercase letters, and in my head, I see how new, inbound information should fit in that mental model. (Y’know how they taught outlines in fourth grade? That’s what’s going on in my head.)

However, to my shock and utter confusion, not everyone in the world is exactly like Paper Doll. Not everyone thinks and understands best solely in terms of text-based notes. For the visually inclined, there are a note-taking methods that incorporate graphics that represent concepts and the connections between them.

Mind Mapping

Mind maps are literally maps that allow you to see how to get from one concept to another. The basis of mind-mapping is that, depending on the complexity of your understanding of the connections between concepts, you can use branching diagrams to draw the way ideas are connected.

And the better you understand a concept, the better you will remember it!

Mind mapping helps you to visually connect ideas regardless of how they are presented. The key is that you have to pay attention to the nuances of the way your lecturer or presenter delivers information so that you know whether whether something is a whale (a big, new idea) or a small fish swimming in the specifics with other little fishies.

For academic purposes, reviewing your mind maps requires that you restructure each of your thought processes, ensuring you truly understand. You can even break down the sections of your mind map onto index cards to text yourself on small sub-sections, then piece them altogether like a jigsaw puzzle to see the big picture.

Nicoguaro, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mind mapping for knowledge acquisition is often best done free-hand, as classrooms, webinars, and conference settings don’t offer the time necessary to quickly click and format a device screen; however, you can take traditional text-based notes and then study by creating visual links as you understand the relationship between concepts.

In a group/work meeting, you might capture brainstormed notes on a white board. For whatever purpose you’re using mind-mapping, if you employ an analog method as you acquire the information, you can always adapt and augment your notes afterward in a digital format.

Popular mind-mapping software platforms are MindMeister, Coggle, Scapple, MindNode, and The Brain.

Even if you’re a visual thinker, mind mapping may be hard to use in an academic setting, when you need to capture a lot of complex details. However, it’s an exemplary tool for visual thinkers taking notes on their own research and personal creative projects.

Sketchnoting

Mind mapping requires words, maybe a few circles about the big concepts, and lines connecting the ideas.

But what if you are so creative and/or non-linear that you need actual pictures for your notes to have meaning? Sketchnoting may offer a better solution; it blends text with doodles and drawings, as well as customized symbols, to help make sense of material presented in a class or at a conference.

Designer and author Mike Rohde coined the term sketchnoting in 2006. His process uses words, pictures, and symbols, including:

standard text
emphasized text (though colors, all-caps, “bubbling” of letters, and anything that makes the text stand out)
shapes, either on their own or combined with bullet points
“containers” or larger shapes, like boxes, quote bubbles, thought bubbles, for showing larger concepts
“connectors” like solid or dotted lines, arrows, or squiggles to show connections between concepts
symbols and icons
drawings, usually done in quick comic-esque style to capture metaphors

Most of the videos on sketchnoting are long; however this little intro (designed as a teaser for a course) is just five minutes and provides a good overview.

Personally, the most creative I get is drawing a delta (a Greek letter that looks like a triangle) as the shortcut for the word “change,” and arrows up/down/right/left to mean increase, decrease, backward, forward.

Additionally, my drawing skills are so poor that when playing Pictionary with my family, it’s been noted that my cows, cars, and maps of the United States all look pretty similar. (Conversely, getting the word “motorcade,” my sister once drew the entire JFK assassination, complete with the grassy knoll and the book depository. I suspect only one person in a family gets artistic talent.)

For a visually creative person, sketchnoting can enliven the material and make it grippier to understand and remember.

If you’d like to delve more deeply into using sketchnoting, Rodhe has his own YouTube channel, and there are there are numerous books on sketchnoting, starting Rohde’s own The Sketchbook Handbook: The Illustrated Guide to Visual Notetaking.

Next time, we’ll continue this series and look at the importance of annotation for learning, as well as note-taking methods for situations that do not involve lectures or presentations, such as research and creation. This will include Zettelkasten, Ahrens Smart Notes, and the Feynman Technique, and we’ll match up the various note-taking situations with the best methods, both analog and digital.

We’ll wrap up this series with thoughts on how AI can help us take notes (or improve our notes), provided we take certain cautions.

Tell me, did you use any special note-taking methods when you were in school? And how do you take notes when you’re in a class, webinar, conference session, or meeting? Please share in the comments.

Blending Libraries: How To Organize Books with Your Sweetheart

Posted on: February 12th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 20 Comments

Did you know that in addition to February 14th being Valentine’s Day, it’s also International Book Giving Day and Library Lovers’ Day? As someone who’d much rather receive a bouquet of books than flowers, this makes sense to Paper Doll. And February 20th is Clean Out Your Bookcase Day!

The literary and the romantic will always be tied together. I mean, watching or hearing someone declare their love is nice, but being able to read (and reread) the declaration more than two hundred years later? Jane Austen knew what she was doing when she had Persuasion‘s Captain Wentworth’s write this to Anne Elliot.

I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant…

Reading can be romantic. But let’s face it, there’s nothing romantic about organizing books.

Or is there?

What could be more romantic than your sweetheart making sure you don’t fall and break your neck tripping over their pile of unread books? What could be a finer proof of your love than moving your books off of the kitchen counter so your darling can actually make lunch?

Other than commingling finances, what could require more love and trust than combining your personal libraries?

ORGANIZE YOUR PERSONAL LIBRARY FIRST

Organizing, downsizing, and protecting your personal library (and your reading time) involves a great deal of thought and planning, as I’ve written before in various posts over 17 years, including:

Ask Paper Doll: How And Where Can I Donate Lots of Books?
Book ’em, Danno! Organizing Your Beloved Books
12 Ways to Organize Your Life to Read More — Part 1 (When, Where, What, With Whom)
12 Ways to Organize Your Life to Read More — Part 2 (Reading Lists, Challenges & Ice Cream Samples)
Organizing Your Reading Space for More Reading Time (which includes links to six super-classic Paper Doll posts dating back to 2010!)
Paper Doll Cleans Out Her Backpack: Book Lover Edition
Paper Doll To the Rescue: How To Save Wet Books & Documents
Shhhhh… We’re organizing the library…

Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it. For example, you could read what Martha Stewart and her favorite peeps have to say about How to Organize Books in a Way That Works for You.

Conversely, you could review what the Washington Post says in How to Organize Your Books, According to People with Thousands of Them.

And, of course, even though I’m a professional organizer, I’m a reader first, and I know that there’s much more to a personal library that just arranging books. To that end, I invite everyone to read Freya Howarth’s How to Nurture a Personal Library.

If your own book collection is sprawling, full of duplicates and titles you’ll never read again (or read at all), outdated college textbooks, or other book clutter (did you gasp at “book clutter”?), you can find ways to hide your biblio-addiction in your own, private space.

That works for hermits. However you choose to organize your own books, organizing books when you live with your significant other adds multiple layers of complexity.

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN BLENDING PERSONAL LIBRARIES

First, you have to decide whether you’re going to try to blend your books, or keep them separate. Then you have to embrace the difficult work of culling your collections. (If you came to blows trying to figure out whose air fryer or toaster oven you’d use, that was mere child’s play.)

When friends ask me if they should blend book collections with their sweethearts, I say, “Don’t. Books are intimate. Mixing your books is like mixing your toothbrushes. Blech!”

When clients ask me the same question, I am more sanguine, or at least more practical.

When friends ask me if they should blend book collections with their sweethearts, I say, 'Don't. Books are intimate. Mixing your books is like mixing your toothbrushes. Blech!' When clients ask me the same question, I am more… Share on X

Space Invaders — Introducing One Library to Another

We love our book collections. Our personal libraries say something about who we were, are, and hope to be. Exposing our private collections may be awkward or embarrassing, less like when your parents share “baby on the bearskin rug” photos and more like when they show photos of you, all braces-and-bad-perm, at the junior prom.

So, let’s imagine that you and your beloved have just decided to cohabit.

Are they moving into your space?

How will you keep from feeling like your terrain is being invaded? If you’ve previously shared an apartment with a friend or just a sub-letting housemate, it’s probably been very clear whose space belongs to whom. Perhaps the division was congenial and you easily divided everything equally; perhaps not.

Will you resent reducing the space available for your carefully curated collection?

It’s one thing to give up space in your closet, bathroom cabinet, or even your underwear drawer, but if you guard your bookshelves fiercely (as most avid readers do), how will you welcome your sweetheart and fellow reader into your space?

Are you moving into their space?

Any time two people move in together where one has already been residing, there’s an implicit turf war. How will you feel at home in a home without adequate and fairly representative space for your books, which you may love as much as someone else loves their Labradoodle! You don’t want to feel like an invader, but neither do you want to feel like a guest in what should become your new home.

Divide Without Conquering — How to Share a Space When Both of You Have Custody of Books

Maybe you’re moving together to a new home and get to start fresh. Or, it’s possible you’ve been living together for a while. Whether the two of your are married or otherwise, your home has the potential for a “yours, mine, and ours” problem in the book department.

Separate but Equal, or Joint Custody?

Even couples who enjoy a hot romance may prefer a cool detente when it comes to blending books. You might decide to keep your personal collections completely separate, or only blend books related to your mutual interests or things related to the family as a whole.

If you decide not to mix your collections, you’ll need to at least designate space for who gets which bookcases and shelves. But this leaves questions:

How do you achieve fairness?

Do you opt for parity?

Your instinct may be to just start unboxing your books wherever you’ve identified as a good space for you, like how the first college student to arrive picks the bed and gets the nearest shelf. That’s fine in a dorm room, where each item has its mirror image, but whose apartment or house has truly equal (and equally appealing) space?

If you decide to choose parity, is the solution equal shelf space or equal number of books? What if one person has hundreds of thin volumes of cozy mysteries but another has far fewer titles but they’re all thick and leather-bound?

You may scoff, but I’ve seen married couples who otherwise seem sane and satisfied in their love come to verbal blows over one having more books taking over their joint space. Leaving aside that all but the mildest scuffles might be better suited to the marriage counseling couch than the organizing session, it’s better to anticipate the problem and talk out the solutions.

If you do blend your collections, either partially or in total (notwithstanding your bedside table To Be Read piles), you’re still going to have a lot to consider.

How do you deal with duplicates?

First, there’s the issue of when the two partners own the same book. In the name of organization, Sweetie may want to keep the pristine first edition of The Sun Also Rises, but Darling has a bent copy with every margin filled with the wisdom gleaned from a much-loved college literature course (when Darling went through a beret-and-Gauloises-smoking phase).

Typically, when professional organizers work with clients who have duplicate skirts or screwdrivers or spatulas, we focus on what’s in the best condition. However, weighing the value of something that is “the same but different,” like a book that has financial value vs. one that has sentimental or intellectual value, is more difficult.

Before shelving, Sweetie and Darling need to decide how they’ll move forward. Will they purge based on monetary value or let sentiment win?

As Emily Dickinson said, the heart wants what the heart wants. If one partner pushes to purge by discounting sentiment, what will the other partner’s heart want if forced to give up too much?

This doesn’t even take into account when one member of the couple has what the other considers an excessive number of duplicates all on their own. Maybe Sweetums has a copy their first sweetheart gave them, then a refined leatherette copy, and maybe even a 50th anniversary edition? Whether it’s Stephen King or F. Scott Fitzgerald, you’ll have to come to terms regarding how much one “gets” to keep.

What organizing system will you use?

Will you shelve randomly, just getting everything out of boxes and onto your bookshelves, figuring you can always organize them later — or perhaps one of you doesn’t care about organizing them at all? (Yes, that was Paper Doll you just heard go, “eek!”)

Will you be systematic, perhaps by author or title or genre? Is it enough for you to separate your fiction from your non-fiction? Or must fiction be chunked into historical eras and then by author, with non-fiction classified by Dewey and his (sexist, racist) decimal system or Library of Congress?

What if you want to organize by genre and your Honeybunny painstakingly orders (and reorders) books in the order HB intends to read them? Readers have quirky preferences. In Anne Fadiman’s famous essay Marrying Libraries (linked below) she proposed to organize American authors alphabetically by last name, but put British authors chronologically, and then their works chronologically by their publishing date!

How to organize books is hotly contested. A You.gov survey a few months ago asked more than 29,000 Americans how many books they owned and how they organized them. The results shows a variety of preferences; what’s the chance your Romeo or Juliet organizes books exactly as you do?

(I’d like to refrain from judgement, but — have you met me? I understand the 28% who don’t organize their books, but the 5% who don’t have books? Please, dear readers. Don’t fall in love with serial killers or people who don’t have books.)

What role should aesthetics play, particularly with books in public spaces (like the living room or den)?

Should crumbling (but well-loved) books go on the home’s fanciest library shelves? What if one person wants to organize by color, while the other is nauseated by anything too removed from the Dewey Decimal System?

If you share a library with someone who organizes books by whether the cover is red or purple, will you start re-thinking your commitment to the relationship?

What about rules for home library organizing? If you (like Paper Doll) are the type to bring all books up to the edge of the shelf, how will you share your library with someone who pushes books all the way back of the shelf so that the fronts aren’t smooth and picture frames and knickknacks get piled in front of them, or worse, overflow books get double-layered in front of the books in the back and … OMG, I’m hyperventilating!

What about the inherent public-facing messages related to content?

What if your partner is embarrassed by your middlebrow tastes? (Maybe they shouldn’t be such a snob about your collection!)

Perhaps you’re cringing at the political leanings reflected by your partner’s books? (You might start wondering if you shouldn’t be with someone whose politics give you “the ick.”)

How will you organize the finances of growing your mutual libraries?

This is part of a larger discussion in your household. If you’re “just” cohabiting, then you may each buy whatever books you want with your own money. But if you’re married, this is a whole other marriage counselor/financial advisor/professional organizer triple-threat conversation. Will you have “yours, mine, and ours” bank accounts and purchase books accordingly from those accounts?

What about digital purchases going forward? Having one unified Kindle account can be a mess, not only for organizing your digital libraries, but for dealing with ownership if the relationship sours.

The Ugly Truth

The sad truth is that not all relationships last. The Gotye song Somebody I Used to Know is heartbreaking and universal, especially when he says,

No, you didn’t have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number

Nobody wants to think about the end of a relationship — of pre-nups and post-nups and dividing community property. But other than personal photos (and the alluded-to music libraries), what could be harder to disentangle than a couple’s library of books?

How will you de-blend your book collections in case of a breakup or divorce?

In the mid-1990s, I lent my (now-former) boyfriend my copy of Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy.

The end of the relationship stung. Time heals, but I still seethe over the loss of the book.

Which is more misery-inducing? Haggling over whose signed copy of To Kill a Mockingbird this is, or playing keep-away and refusing to take ownership of The DaVinci Code or Atlas Shrugged or Eat, Pray, Love?

If you do blend your libraries, perhaps take the precaution of putting your initials on the inside cover of your books. Maybe that little insurance policy that you won’t lose your books will give you the confidence to keep working together through the tough times?

BLENDING BOOKS: THE ONGOING DEBATE

This post was supposed to be about love, and now I’ve shared all the troubles I’ve seen in my professional (and personal) capacity. Maybe you’d like someone else’s take?

This 2018 piece from Minnesota’s Star Tribune, Bookmark: Should newlyweds combine their book collections?, offers a sweetly messy take.

The truth is, though, there’s no one right answer. Even the popular blog Book Riot can’t agree. In 2012, Book Riot published How to Say “I Do” to Shared Bookshelves Without Ruining Your Relationship; nine years later, it published, Don’t Merge Book Collections.

The thing is, they were both right.

The earlier, more optimistic post focused on the how-to advice: work together to create a new, joint organizing system; display your books so you and your partner can operate from a position of strength and wisdom; “Leave your Judgy McJudgerton pants in the closet” (which is quite possibly my favorite piece of organizing advice, ever); and compromise. The author, Book Riot’s Chief of Staff Rebecca Joines Schinsky, acknowledged that if things got hot (and not the good kind) over the discussions, you might just decide to blend everything except books.

But Schinsky ends with, “Like committing to a relationship, merging your bookshelves is an exercise in hope.” She eschews the idea of an exit strategy.

A different Book Riot author, Associate Editor Danika Ellis, was less optimistic in 2021, giving four reasons not to blend books: personal libraries are a reflection of our unique, personal selves; our sorting systems are similarly personal; our systems should work for us; and, as I’ve already noted, relationships end. More cynical than her colleague, Ellis ends with:

Your books will outlive you, and they’ll certainly outlive your relationship, no matter how charmed. So make the right call: prioritize your books. You’ll thank me later.

ORGANIZE BOOKS (WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER) WITHOUT BLOODSHED

Romantic or cynic, you can’t keep the books in moving boxes piled up around you. (Well, as I’ve seen with many clients over the years, you can, but I don’t advise it.)

A few years ago I wrote Paper Doll’s Pop Culture Guide to Decluttering with Your Valentine. It reflected my definitive approach to organizing with the love of your life. Before you think about organizing your mutual libraries, read that. (But I’ll now always look at my comment, “Purge the judgement and toss the guilt,” and wish I’d written, “Judgy McJudgerton pants.”)

Beyond that, communication is key. You may have a history of long, romantic discussions over favorite books, authors, and genres, but have you ever talked about organization? Go through the issues I raised above: about resentment over invasion or not feeling at home, about parity and systems, about aesthetics vs. function, about finances. And yes, about how to have an insurance policy so the books don’t suffer if the relationship doesn’t make it.

Compromise is hard. I advise creating a system that requires as little compromise as possible. The best relationships are the ones where you are able to maintain a sense of your personal identity as you grow a mutual identity in a couple. You will face enough compromises in other areas of your relationship; do what you can to keep your relationship from impinging on your reading comfort.

Pare down your individual book collections, and then start with them separate — your shelves and their shelves. You can always create shelves with books for family-specific topics like travel, cookbooks, or household care, and if you grow your family, books for any tiny humans who come along.

That said, be open to reversible experimentation. Getting rid of out-of-print books is hard to reverse, while a new organizing system causing confusion is easily remedied.

Look for helpful alternatives. If you’re both willing to blend libraries but not willing to cull duplicates, consider putting them on a bookshelf in your guest bedroom. Your guests can easily find something to read on sleepless nights.

Create a library inventory. There are so many apps and online options, like Libib, Goodreads, Library Thing, for documenting what books you own and where you’ve organized them. Just scan your books’ bar codes and the information will populate in a database. Most let you create a field for who brought it into the household (a high-tech version of penciling your initials inside the cover). It will also help you identify duplicates if your collections are large and sprawl across rooms or even floors of the house.

LOVING ESSAYS ABOUT BLENDING LIBRARIES

No Valentine’s Week post on the romantic blending of libraries would be complete without sharing two seminal essays on the topic:

Marrying Libraries by Anne Fadiman, excerpted from her excellent book, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. (My favorite essay in the collection is My Odd Shelf, but the whole book is a reader’s paradise.)

The Books by Alexander Chee for The Morning News with this:

It’s hard to explain how moving it was to me to sit down with Dustin’s books on the night I combined our fiction. It took me completely by surprise. I had truly thought it was an ordinary exercise. But it never is with books, I know now.

I began by carefully lifting them off the shelf, dusting them and taking them into the living room.

In some way that wasn’t apparent to me before they sat on the side table, waiting to be sorted, I could see these were the books that had kept him company in those years before he knew me, the books that had helped him turn into him. This hadn’t quite been apparent to me before I took them down to move them.

but also this bit about duplicates, which sums up the whole discussion:

You don’t keep the doubles because you believe you may not stay together. You keep the doubles because the one you own, that’s your friend. The one he owns, that’s his. To only have one, it would be like sharing an email address.

Not everything can be shared. And that isn’t a crisis. It’s how it should be.

If you share your home with a sweetie-pie, how do you organize your mutual book collections?

Paper Doll Presents 4 Stellar Organizing & Productivity Resources

Posted on: February 13th, 2023 by Julie Bestry | 14 Comments

Given that it’s Valentine’s Day week, I wanted to give all of my Paper Doll readers some treats. In this post, we’ll be looking at three books covering organizing, motivation, and productivity, as well as an upcoming video interview series for taking a proactive approach to productivity in leadership.

GO WITH THE FLOW! (The Clutter Flow Chart Workbook)

If you’ve been reading Paper Doll for a while, the name Hazel Thornton won’t be new to you. We’ve been colleagues and friends for many years, and I’ve shared Hazel with you when I interviewed her (along with Jennifer Lava and Janine Adams) for Paper Doll Interviews the Genealogy Organizers and when I profiled her stellar book, What’s a Photo Without the Story? How to Create Your Family Legacy in my 2021 holiday gift list post.

Hazel is a delight and full of wisdom — and how many other professional organizers do you know who are experts on photo organizing, genealogy, and family legacies and who served on the jury in the famed Menendez trial?

But Hazel is pretty famous for one other thing — flow charts. If the topic of flow charts even comes up in any organizing circles, Hazel’s is the first (and sometimes only) name that gets raised; she’s that much of a subject matter expert. So, it made sense that Hazel would take her favorite creations from her wealth of flow chart wisdom and leverage them into a resource.

Hazel’s newest book, published just a few weeks ago, is Go With the Flow! The Clutter Flow Chart Workbook. And it’s a whopper for anyone looking for some turn-by-turn directions for getting organized, from where to start to how to progress logically so you don’t get stuck.

This 170-page, 8.5″ x 11″, portrait-oriented paperback workbook includes 17 charts covering all different kinds of clutter:

clutter in your spaces (closet, garage, kitchen, office)
daily clutter (to-do lists, general paper, kids’ paper, cash flow, mental clutter)
legacy clutter (keepsakes, ancestry, photos)
life event clutter (holiday activity, holiday décor, occupied staging)

There are even flow charts to tell you which clutter flow chart you need and to help you get back on track if you’ve had some backsliding in the decluttering process.

(You won’t be surprised that Paper Doll‘s favorite flow chart was the one on dealing with paper clutter. But I suspect one of the most useful flow charts overall might be the one on keepsakes.)

Of course, the book would be pretty short if it only had flow charts. In each section, Hazel follows the flow chart with detailed answers to four questions.

What is clutter? — You might think you know what type of clutter you’re dealing with, but the book helps you identify items you may not have even considered. In each chapter, this section asks pertinent questions about how you interact with the item (tangible or otherwise) and feel about it, probes whether it needs to be in your life, prompts you to consider its condition or situation, and leads you to make wise decisions regarding whether it still fits you and your life. These are the exact questions we professional organizers gently pepper clients with when we work together.
Why can’t I part with my clutter? — As a veteran professional organizer, Hazel doesn’t just tell you to “buck up, buttercup!” but employs the analysis of the “what is clutter?” sub-questions to dig deeply into why the reader might be experiencing challenges in letting go.
What should I do with my clutter? — With each distinct category, the book offers clear suggestions as to where that clutter can go so it will really, truly leave your life in the most beneficial way possible.
What if, despite my best intentions, I am still living with clutter? — Nobody’s perfect. And Rome wasn’t built (or decluttered) in a day. So, the book has guidance for continuing to make progress and for getting support.

There’s bonus material, like resources for getting help organizing and decluttering and blank clutter worksheets to help you identify answers and track efforts. (Be sure to read the content in the clutter worksheet examples, because Hazel’s down-to-earth sense of humor shines there!)

In addition, there’s a special section advising professional organizers how to use the content of the workbook with clients.

Go With the Flow! is subtitled The Clutter Flow Chart Workbook, and for those who are feeling stuck with (or stymied by) their clutter, this can be the catalyst to actually make progress by working through the clutter instead of just reading about it. The combination of the flow charts, where their visual approach to “If X, then Y” fork-in-the-road decision trees, with straightforward prose coaching through the what’s and why’s of decluttering, offers a one-two punch for knocking clutter out of your life.

Go With the Flow! The Clutter Flow Chart Workbook is available for $27.50 at Amazon. If you’re in Australia (to which Amazon/KDP will not market books with color images), or if you desperately want a landscape-oriented version of the book, you can purchase a PDF copy directly from Hazel’s website. (It’s a slightly finicky process, Hazel reports, so do follow the instructions.)

DO IT TODAY

You’ve got dreams that sparkle. Friends see your eyes light up when you talk about your big, bold visions for the future. You know you’ve got fabulous ideas inside of you that can make the world smarter, happier, healthier, weirder (in a good way), or just plain better.

So why aren’t you working on them?

Why aren’t you getting on that stage, giving your TED Talk or taking a bow for your award-winning creation? Why are you scrolling through social media or counting your excuses or being held back by fear?

Once I got Kara Cutruzzula’s Do It Today: An Encouragement Journal in my hands, I realized I’d never seen a journal like this. It’s colorful and beautiful, with each turn of the page yielding a vibrant new palette, but the aesthetics are just the frosting on this empathetic, wise cake, a combo of a journal and motivational coach.

Friend-of-the-blog Kara Cutruzzula is a writer and editor, and I start my day reading her newsletter, Brass Ring Daily. BRD is pithy, perky, and just philosophical enough to get you out of your bed and headed to the coffee maker. (Kara is other things: a musical theater lyricist, playwright, podcaster, and fellow Gilmore Girls aficionado. But the rest I’m saving for an upcoming interview, so you’ll just have to be patient.)

As a follow-up to her Do It For Yourself, the first in her Start Before You’re Ready series, Do It Today offers gentle motivational coaching. Read straight through and tackle the guided motivational exercises one by one, or devour the section-starting essays and then ping-pong through exercises that resonate most with you on that day.

(Or, perhaps start each day with the journal, using an exercise as Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way-style morning pages?)

Personally, I’ve started using Do It Today to help me avoid procrastination by — you guessed it — procrastinating with the journal. When I find myself doing everything except the writing or project I really know I should be working on (to reach my own goals), I settle in to reread one of Kara’s essays and then tackle a journal entry. (In full disclosure, the journal is so beautiful that I can’t bring myself to actually write in it, and tend to type my responses so that I don’t obsess about my ever-more chicken-scratchy handwriting.)

To give you sense of the approach, the chapter-starting essays include:

Go Toward Your Nerves
Start Before You’re Ready (I’m sensing a theme here!)
Don’t Be Productive, Percolate Instead — Worth the price of admission!
Stamina, Courage, and Mirages
Sweet, Sweet Rejection — Trust me, whether you fear failure (or, like me, fear mediocrity), Kara’s stance here will conjure up the best kinds of attitude adjustments.
Weave a Generous Web
Do It Today

It would be hard to pick, but the chapter on percolation is probably my favorite. Maybe because Kara’s writing here dovetails with what I wrote in my series last year on toxic productivity, I was prepared to embrace what she had to say. Or maybe it’s because she illustrates (through a tale of John Steinbeck and examples you’ll recognize from your own life) that percolation is a brilliant cheat code.

Have you ever circled an idea for a while, finding the tendrils of a concept while never locating key to actually getting started?

Percolation is “…giving yourself time and space to think without the extra pressure to track your performance…allowing yourself to enjoy reflecting and exploring your options.” Instead of coming up with ready-for-Prime-Time ideas, Kara helps you find your sources of inspiration, ideas, and solutions, areas you may have closed yourself off from by focusing on the perfect end result. Long story short, when you’ve focused too long on the checkmark at the end, Kara reminds you to focus on the joy of creation and accomplishment.

In each chapter of Do It Today, Kara has interspersed pop-art messages to uplift, free-writing journaling prompts, and list templates to get you thinking.

Some of my favorite, deceptively astute lines and what they mean to me:

You are more powerful than your productivity — battering toxic productivity’s lie that your worth comes from what you deliver
Everyone is just trying their best with the information they have — reminding you that none of us are perfect and prompting us to start now (because you can’t edit a blank page)
Look at all you have — focusing on gratitude as well as noticing the bounty we possess rather than the short stack and what we lack
Do, don’t overdo — I think I resemble — I mean, resent — that remark. I feel seen.

In terms of journaling prompts, in the section on starting before you’re ready, there’s a page that asks, “Is there one conversation you’re not ready to have? Even if you don’t know how to say it, begin here by writing a few possible opening sentences.” Down deep, you know this works. You’ve felt a sense of ease after telling your BFF about a problem at work and how you dread dealing with it. But by letting yourself stop thinking of the issue, and just giving yourself a few minutes to think about it, in context, you’ll find the weight is lifted!

I suggested one of the prompts from the Courage chapter to a client who wanted to apply for an opportunity but feared putting herself forward. Kara writes, “Have you ever had to ask someone to write you a letter of recommendation? What if you wrote one for yourself, highlighting your strengths and what you would bring to your next opportunity?” It worked!

The list-making prompts are incredible in their powerful simplicity. If you’re feeling like a slug, unable to clarify your thoughts, Kara encourages that you write a list of ten ideas completely unrelated to your current project, and offers some examples. The key is that taking your focus off of a lack of productivity hoovers up all the cobwebs.

Other list prompts help you strengthen your arsenal of motivation-boosting weapons of stress-destruction, like noting people who’ve historically provided safe spaces for you to share your works in progress.

I can’t do justice to this creative, colorful guide to getting un-stuck, but I’d describe it as being like meeting your most inspiring friend for brunch and leaving full of waffles and excitement.

Do It Today is available in paperback for $16.99 or Kindle for $9.99 at Amazon, as well as at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop, Powell’s, and Indigo. You can also purchase directly from the publisher, Abrams Books.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR HOW YOU’RE WIRED

My longtime colleague Ellen Faye is a consummate professional and ridiculously unflappable. She’s a Certified Professional Organizer®, Professional Certified Coach, and Certified Productivity Leadership Coach. She’s even been the president of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals!

Ellen recognized that there are far too many books out there by coaches telling readers how to be successful they way they, the coaches, have done it. Ellen, however, saw that her clients needed productivity solutions and systems that worked for them, not merely for her. That realization of the need for customization inspired her to write Productivity for How You’re Wired: Better Work. Better Life.

Front cover of Productivity for How You're Wired by Ellen Faye

Ellen’s book is designed for people seeking to be “more intentional about how they use their time and live their life,” and the book approaches this concept in three main ways.

First, she wants readers to understand how they are truly wired with regard to how they deal with time and productivity. Ellen recognizes that individuals have different needs and ways of thinking in terms of structure preference as well as productivity style.

In the first section of the book, Ellen guides readers to identify how their brains work best. She explains far better than I could even attempt, but the key is that you have to understand whether your priority focus is tasks vs. relationships, and then really comprehend what kind of structure (low, medium, or high) you need in your work and life — that’s situational structure. Through clear examples and charts, she walks you through identifying where, given your focus and structure preference, you’ll thrive or feel overly confined, struggle or succeed, power up or feel lost.

Meanwhile, Ellen’s take on productivity style borrows from, and refines, other research on the topic, and the book helps you isolate which productivity style (Catalyst, Coordinator, Diplomat, or Innovator) best fits you, laying out the characteristics and best work process approach for each. It’s really eye opening.

This section also illustrates how understanding challenges like perfectionism, procrastination, chronic stress, and burnout plays into making positive changes.

In the second part of the book, Ellen teaches the reader how to create a productivity flow framework to transform current unworkable systems into customized pathways to success. Productivity for How You’re Wired walks you through setting your goals and intentions, using a time map, defining the essential structures, creating a priorities task list, and doing your daily and weekly planning.

Productivity books often have one uniform approach to everything and then vague pointers for understanding how to begin and continue; you have to find where you fit in. Instead, Ellen provides detailed guidance so that no part of your life is going to fall through the cracks. Basically, it’s like having Ellen as your coach, sticking by you step-by-step, so you can get clear on your priorities and focus on the essentials elements for achieving what means the most.

The third part of the book combines the deep understanding you’ll gain regarding the right approach for you and the overarching framework you developed so you can apply the concepts to your own life and work demands. Using the right structure preferences and productivity style, you’ll see how to deal with meetings, email, decision-making, remote work, team leadership, and more.

I particularly liked that Productivity for How You’re Wired‘s chapters start with “Highlights,” overviews of what’s coming so that you can find your place. (I like to know where I’m going when I read so I have an “ah-ha” when I get there!)

The book has myriad real-life stories to help you see parallels between your situation and others who’ve been through it and achieved success. To that end, each chapter also has “Making It Fit” charts so you can make decisions using your own structure preference and productivity style and know what to do in the situation described.

You can use the Productivity for How You’re Wired as a bit of a workbook, as each chapter ends with a place to note those “Takeaways” you don’t want to forget and commit to the “Actions” you’ll take to help you develop your own systems.

The only drawback to the book is that some of the material on the charts can be hard to read (due to the confines of a tangible book); however, there are colorful versions of the charts available online, which allow you to expand the charts so you can see them more clearly. There are also supplemental resources on the website.

Productivity for How You’re Wired is fluff-free. This is just about the meatiest book I’ve ever seen on achieving personalized productivity. This book is a real commitment — to yourself and the material — but short of working in person with Ellen herself, it’s an amazing way to tweak every detail of your approach to work and life to fit in everything important to you. If you make the commitment, I think you’ll be impressed with what you get out of it.

Productivity for How You’re Wired is available from Amazon for $17.64 for paperback or $9.99 on Kindle.

CREATING ORDER AMONG CHAOS

Starting February 15, 2023 and running through February 28, 2023, I’m participating in the adventurously titled Creating Order Among Chaos: How To Effectively Manage The Everyday Whirlwind Of Responsibilities So That You’re Empowered To Do More Leading & Less Reacting!

This free online video retreat is headed up by personal coach and business consultant Robert Barlow from Perpetual Aim. You might recall his name from when I did Robert’s The Leader’s Asset series on prioritization and leadership last summer.

If you’re a solopreneur or small business owner, you know what it’s like when you’re constantly reacting instead of acting, always putting out fires (that often turn out to be fireflies) instead of setting off your own carefully planned fireworks. Simply put, it can feel impossible to feel like you’re running the show, and instead everything (and everyone, and every sensory input) is distracting you from achieving success.

It’s hard to lead when the ducklings behind you keep getting out of line. It’s hard to make progress when the phones won’t stop ringing about yesterday’s efforts (and other people’s priorities). That’s where the video retreat comes in!

Robert has gathered 14 speakers, myself included, who all share a passion for empowering small business owners and professionals to work more on their businesses instead of in their businesses (to borrow from Michael Gerber’s now-classic The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.)

Each of us participating are bringing our knowledge and expertise to these short but powerful video interviews with Robert, and you can anticipate that each will leave you with actionable options to achieve your priorities. Topics covered will include:

How to manage juggling responsibilities
How to lead and delegate to others
Ways to create stronger boundaries so that you are less overcommitted and overwhelmed
Tips, tools, and strategies that move you forward in life
What thinking patterns are keeping you mired in place
How to stay connected with your vision, goals, and ideals
How to manage your time on a day to day basis to accomplish what you desire.

This two-week video series is virtual; that means you can watch it at home, in the office, on your commute (provided someone else is driving the car/bus/train), or wherever you can get away from the hubbub.

I think we’d all love the opportunity to pick the brains of experts in productivity and leadership, and have conversations to help guide professional success. I’m excited to not only have contributed my thoughts, but I can’t wait to hear what the other experts have to say. Participating experts include:

Dr. Frank Buck, long-time friend-of-the-blog, with whom I’ve shared many virtual stages. (You might recall that Frank interviewed me on his podcast last year, and I’ve referenced him often on these pages.)
Alexis Haselberger is a fabulous coach and consultant whom I fist met when I spoke at Ray Sidney-Smith‘s 2019 Productivity Summit. I love her motto: “Do More, Stress Less.”
Steven Dossou is all about personal transformation. His background in marketing leadership, his executive and life coaching experience, and what I’ve heard him say about fear, self-doubt, and self-esteem, has me really intrigued about what he’ll discuss in his interview.
Rudy Miick, founder of the Miick Method for purpose-driven creating, maintaining, and expanding excellence, should bring some fascinating ideas to the table.
Stephanie Paillé is a leadership coach specializing in mindset shifts and high performance culture.
Gill Tiney, an expert on the power of collaboration, should have an amazing take on how we can do more (even with all those distracting inputs) by working together.

And that’s only hitting half of the presenters!

I have a complimentary ticket for you to attend. Just click on https://perpetualaim.com/JulieBestry to register for this free, online two-week “retreat,” and you’ll start getting emails to take you to each daily interview. I hope you’ll attend, and if you watch my interview with Robert, feel free to come back and share your thoughts on what I’ve said about conquering overwhelm and achieving prioritized focus for improved leadership.

Happy Valentine’s Day, my wonderful readers. I hope these books and the video series will help you achieve your organizing and productivity goals.

Much (productive) love,

Paper Doll

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Archive for ‘Reading’ Category

Organize Your Life for More Reading Opportunities

HAVE BOOKS, WILL TRAVEL (OR SIT)

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Zig Before You Zag — You Don’t Have to Tackle Reading Head-On

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MOD PROTECT

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Zip Notes

Zip Notes Executive Dispenser

Zip Notes Administrator Dispenser

Zip Notes Manual Dispenser

ANXIETY BOOKSHELF

What Is the Anxiety Bookshelf?

Isn’t This Just Clutter?

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Take Note: Paper Doll’s Guide to Organized Note-Taking in Lectures & Presentations (Part 2)

NOTE-TAKING METHODS WHEN SOMEONE IS SPEAKING

TEXT-BASED NOTE-TAKING METHODS

Sentence Method

Outlining Method

Cornell Note-Taking System

Products to Help the Cornell Note-Taking Method

VISUAL AND HYBRID NOTE-TAKING METHODS

Mind Mapping

Sketchnoting

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Blending Libraries: How To Organize Books with Your Sweetheart

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WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN BLENDING PERSONAL LIBRARIES

Space Invaders — Introducing One Library to Another

Divide Without Conquering — How to Share a Space When Both of You Have Custody of Books

The Ugly Truth

BLENDING BOOKS: THE ONGOING DEBATE

LOVING ESSAYS ABOUT BLENDING LIBRARIES

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Paper Doll Presents 4 Stellar Organizing & Productivity Resources

GO WITH THE FLOW! (The Clutter Flow Chart Workbook)

DO IT TODAY

PRODUCTIVITY FOR HOW YOU’RE WIRED

CREATING ORDER AMONG CHAOS

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