Two Booked Up

Shelley and Rowena are excited to share with you this Bonus episode of Two Booked Up. They are technically taking a break between podcast seasons but couldn’t resist sharing an update about how they have been going with the 2023 Two Booked Up Reading Challenge! The 23 for 2023 Reading Challenge brings a bit more intentionality and diversity into their non-fiction reading lives — with a nice little...

It’s been a year since the first Two Booked Up podcast episode aired, and in this episode, Rowena and Shelley are celebrating their one-year podcast anniversary! To mark this auspicious milestone, they are sharing some insights and reflections from their year of collaborative podcasting, including what they have loved and what they have learned. And they will answer some BIG questions. Some are li...

In this episode, Shelley and Rowena reflect on their words for the year. The bookworms are revisiting the idea they shared in their most popular episode, Episode 21: "February is the new January — our guiding words." With over half the year behind them, they're checking in on their progress. Shelley shares how her word "momentum" has supported her to make a particularly important decision in her b...

The Two Booked Up Podcast has come to the end of Season 2, and Shelley and Rowena are excited to share the highlights and stand-out moments of this Season.  In this episode, the bookworms share common themes from the books they featured, the most popular episode, the thing that’s been the most fun, their top highlights, and their lightbulb moments! It’s an episode of superlatives — all the things...

Shelley and Rowena are delighted to be interviewing Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst, co-authors of the book featured and discussed over the last two episodes, the Sunday Times No 1 Bestseller, Workstyle: A Revolution for Wellbeing, Productivity and Society . Workstyle is all about deliberately choosing when, where, and how you work — and that’s completely aligned with intentional living, which is some...

In this episode, Rowena and Shelley are continuing the conversation about the book Workstyle: A Revolution for Wellbeing, Productivity, and Society, by Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst .  They are going to be bringing the concept a little closer to home and sharing more about their own Workstyle Stories.  Specifically, they will explore one of the important tenets of the book, that you need to SET, PRO...

It’s time for a revolution! Our new featured book is by business partners, Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst and it’s entitled Workstyle: A Revolution for Wellbeing, Productivity, and Society. Workstyle is a Sunday Times Number 1 Bestseller and when Lizzie and Alex talk about a revolution, they mean it. If you're looking to work in your own way — throw out the 9-5, rethink hourly-based work, and even re...

A few months ago Shelley and Rowena shared the 23 for 2023 Non-Fiction Reading Challenge. This challenge is a way to read with intention, but also keep reading fun and playful. In this episode, they’re sharing their progress with the challenge and how it’s helped them to read more widely. They’ll also share some book recommendations and tips for making the challenge your own. Oh, and they can’t re...

“What would it mean to spend the only time you ever get in a way that truly feels as though you are making it count?” That’s the question Oliver Burkeman poses at the end of Four Thousand Weeks, saying that it’s the most fundamental question of time management. To answer that question, he poses five more specific questions, which Rowena and Shelley are diving into in this episode of Two Booked Up....

Shelley and Rowena are continuing the conversation about Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. In his book, Oliver drops the truth bomb that we ALL procrastinate — even the most organised among us! — and that the trick to managing our 4000 weeks is not to fight against procrastination… but to procrastinate BETTER. Using this idea and running with it… Shelley will take a deep dive into exploring...

It’s time to dive into a new book here on Two Booked Up and we’ve got a cracker for you! Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. If you’re a mortal, you should definitely tune in!  But seriously, if you’ve struggled with time management and feel frustrated that the latest productivity technique has failed you — then this book is for you. It turns the idea of time manag...

When you hear the word “habits,” how do you feel? A sense of heaviness or obligation… feeling guilty about your “bad” habits… or even feeling ashamed that you haven’t been able to stick to your habits? If that’s how you feel about habits, you’re not alone. But it doesn’t have to be that way! After Shelley’s takedown of Atomic Habits in the last episode, we thought we’d consider habits through a bi...

Shelley’s got a bee in her bonnet in this episode! The reason? Atomic Habits by James Clear. Since it was published in October 2018, it has appeared in the best-seller list multiple times and gets recommendations from far and wide — especially around the start of a new year. Yet Shelley is not a fan and doesn’t believe this book deserves to be the definitive book on habits (gasp!). In this episode...

If you find yourself getting stuck in a rut with a particular book genre, or if you’re spending more time reading social media posts than books — and you want to change that — then we’ve got a fun challenge to share with you. Join the Two Booked Up 23 for 2023 Reading Challenge . In this episode, Rowena and Shelley will explain how the challenge will work and the intention behind it… which actuall...

Rowena and Shelley are back with Season 2 of Two Booked Up! Woohoo! But… whaaaaaat?! How is it February?!!! Honestly, do you feel like you’ve somehow got behind on all the New Year's to-dos? Could you do with a bit of a fresh start to the year? Then this episode is for you. Or are you experiencing February as “Mum’s New Year”? We really feel this in the southern hemisphere, because we’ve had our l...

This episode was supposed to be a minisode, but COME ON! Rowena and Shelley are two bookworms, two boy moms, and this is a topic that is very near to their hearts! So if you’re a parent and you want your kids to identify as “readers,” to love reading, and to create a culture of reading in your home, then there’s going to be so much gold in this episode for you. And while the focus is on kids, Rowe...

Regular books or audiobooks? Or put another way: reading with your eyes or reading with your ears? Which do you prefer? In this bonus episode, Rowena and Shelley explore both listening and reading books — covering the benefits and the drawbacks of each. And they share their personal preferences too, so you can decide for yourself which is best for you — reading with your eyes or your ears. Connect...

Two Booked Up is a podcast about personal and professional development books, but Shelley and Rowena also love to read fiction! So today on Two Booked Up, in another of the bonus episodes that make up the Summer Series, Shelley and Rowena are singing the praises of fiction!  Because reading a great story is not only a great brain break and leisure activity, it can be useful in your business, your...

With Rowena in Australia and Shelley in South Africa, it is Summer in Two Booked Up Land! Kids are on school holidays and just about everyone is heading off on vacation or taking some time off. Long days spent relaxing by the pool or on the beach beckon. And for those of you in the northern hemisphere, it’s a great time to curl up under a cozy blanket with a good book. So today, in the next bonus...

Shelley and Rowena are looking back at 2022 and highlighting seven standout non-fiction books that they’ve read this year. So if you’re looking for ideas to add to your TBR list for the holidays and into 2023, you’re in the right place! Listen in for why each of the books made it onto each bookworms’ lists — and, for your convenience, here’s a list of the books for you to check out.   Links Rowena...

It’s the final episode of Season 1, so Rowena and Shelley chat about the highlights from each of the three books they discussed and pull together the overall theme of the season.  The books discussed in Season 1 were The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi and Essentialism by Greg McKeown. Rowena and Shelley also share that there will be Season 2 of the Two Book...

Today Rowena and Shelley not only wrap up their conversations about Essentialism; The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown but they also bring together a few thematic threads from the other two books featured in this season — the Four Tendencies and The Lazy Genius Way. Rowena shares how embracing the essentialist principles of ‘Explore’, ‘Eliminate’ and then ‘Execute’ in your career or bus...

Does an Essentialist really play around? That seems a little frivolous! Play is in fact a major part of living life as an Essentialist, as you’ll learn in this episode of Two Booked Up. Rowena and Shelley are continuing their discussion of Essentialism; The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown , and doing a deep dive into one of the ideas that comes up in Chapter 7of the book: the importanc...

It’s something of an Essentialist Exam on Two Booked Up today! How will Rowena and Shelley stack up as Essentialists?  In the episode, the bookworms consider these questionsin the light of their featured book,  Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown : In what ways did you already consider yourself an Essentialist before you read the book? How have you become more of an Essen...

It’s time for a new book! Today’s episode is the start of Rowena and Shelley’s discussion of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.   You might hear the term Essentialist and wonder what it means. It sounds a bit like Minimalist , so perhaps it’s about getting more done with less? But no, being an Essentialist is not about getting more things done or how to do that, but rat...