Two Booked Up

Title: TBU#40: How to find tranquillity in the turbulence

Artwork Title: How to find tranquillity in the turbulence 

It’s the first book for 2024, and Shelley and Rowena are excited to be talking about their top takeaways from the book Tranquility by Tuesday by time management guru Laura Vanderkam. 

Tranquillity is a beautiful notion and very appealing to many, especially amid the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life —especially on an average Tuesday!

The book has some excellent tactics for calming the chaos without having to escape the realities of life, but rather to build a resilient schedule that’ll handle all the unpredictabilities that come our way.

Shelley and Rowena highlight their favourites of Laura’s nine rules, so if you’re looking for more tranquillity in life, be sure to join Shelley and Rowena for this episode.

• Two Booked Up Episode 1: The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin


• Two Booked Up Episode 2: Personal Life and The Four Tendencies


• Two Booked Up Episode 3: Running Your Own Business Using The Four Tendencies


• Two Booked Up Episode 4: Take Yourself on a Date 


• Two Booked Up Episode 6: The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi


• Two Booked Up Episode 7: How we are Lazy Geniusing our lives and how you can too


• Two Booked Up Episode 8: Our best tips to “Lazy Genius” your business


• Two Booked Up Episode 9: Naming What Matters 


• Two Booked Up Episode 11: Essentialism by Greg McKeown


• Two Booked Up Episode 12:

In this all-new episode of Two Booked Up, Shelley and Rowena are encouraging you to shake things up in 2024. Last year the bookworms reinvigorated their and your reading by taking a playful yet intentional approach. 

And this year, they want you to read more and have more fun as you do it!

After all, what we read affects our feelings, thoughts, our actions, our mood, and really how we show up in the world. So, it’s important not to leave that to chance and instead to choose to read things that make you feel good or expand your knowledge.

But don’t worry, they aren’t getting too serious. Instead, they are embracing what is now a  Two Booked Up tradition and announcing the 24 for 2024 Reading Challenge.

Tune in to hear how Rowena and Shelley are helping you have more fun as you read more in ’24! 

Episode Links Mentioned

• Two Booked Up Episode 1: The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin


• Two Booked Up Episode 13: Play Your Own Game


• Two Booked Up Episode 18: In Praise of Fiction


• Two Booked Up Episode 28: The Reading Challenge is On


• Two Booked Up Episode 35: The 23 for 2023 Reading Challenge - here’s how we’re tracking


• Two Booked Up Episode 36: Behind the Scenes of Rowena’s novel - out now!


• Two Booked Up Episode 37: Holiday Reads and Bookish Traditions

• Create Anyway by Ashlee Gadd


• Avoiding the Friend Zone by Rowena Mabbott

Happy New February! At Two Booked Up, February is the new January! If you ever needed permission for a restart of the year, this episode provides that and much more.

In this episode, Rowena and Shelley share their guiding words, or phrases, of the year and what these words mean for this podcast and their reading lives, as well as their lives in general. 

They discuss why a guiding word or phrase can feel more supportive than goals and how choosing a guiding word can bring more intention and creativity into your life.

So if you’d like some inspiration for choosing your guiding word or phrase for 2024, make sure you join Shelley and Rowena in this special episode.

• Two Booked Up Episode 37: Holiday Reads and Bookish Traditions


• Two Booked Up Episode 1: The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin


• Two Booked Up Episode 2: Personal Life and The Four Tendencies


• Two Booked Up Episode 3: Running Your Own Business Using The Four Tendencies


• Two Booked Up Episode 4: Take Yourself on a Date 

• When by Daniel Pink


• Avoiding the Friend Zone by Rowena Mabbott


• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles


• How to Grow Your Small Business by Donald Miller


• Building a StoryBrand

It’s that time of year, and Two Booked Up is celebrating with a Christmas Special episode. Rowena and Shelley will be talking about some of the ways that you can make this holiday season a little more bookish!

If you want to read more this season and encourage friends and family to do the same, this episode has some fun ideas for you to try out.

Rowena and Shelley also have some book recommendations for the holiday season; they share some of their favourite fiction and non-fiction books from the last few months and will tell you what’s on each of their “To Be Read” lists for the holidays!

Join Shelley and Rowena as they celebrate the end of 2023 in this holiday special!

• Two Booked Up Episode 28: The Reading Challenge is ON


• Two Booked Up Episode 35: 23 for 2023 Reading Challenge - here’s how we’re tracking

• Avoiding the Friend Zone by Rowena Mabbott


• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Rowena’s favourites

• The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman


• Keep Moving by Maggie Smith

Shelley’s favourites

• Space Band by Tom Fletcher


• Radical Candor by Kim Scott

TBR lists

Shelley - Non-Fiction

Shelley and Rowena love talking about books, but this episode is rather special because they are not just talking about a book they’ve both read. 

They are talking about THE book Rowena has written! Rowena’s debut novel, Avoiding the Friend Zone, was published this week. It’s a perfect holiday read!

Shelley dons the interviewer hat and interviews Rowena, and together, they explore the joys and challenges of writing and publishing a book.

If you’ve thought about writing a book or are keen to learn about what goes into writing one, you’ll love this episode.

Join Shelley and Rowena as they celebrate the launch of Rowena’s novel.

• Two Booked Up Episode 1: The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin


• Two Booked Up Episode 6: The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi


• Two Booked up Episode 13: Play Your Own Way

• Avoiding the Friend Zone by Rowena Mabbott

The Creative Penn - Joanna Penn

Find us online at twobookedup.com and keep in touch with Two Booked Up via email by signing up for the Two Booked Up Bookclub.

Connect with Rowena @rowenamabbott on IG and at rowenamabbott.com. You can also get Rowena’s FREE e-books, The A to Z of Career and Life Confidence and The Criteria List here.

Connect with Shelley on LinkedIn at Shelley Tonkin Smith. Her copywriting business is at shelleysmithcreative.com, and her writing and other musings are at shelleytonkinsmith.com.

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 bit of fun, too! 

The Reading Challenge is a checklist of 23 different categories of books, and as you’ll hear in this episode, you can make the challenge your own, but the main aim is to inspire you to read more and more widely — try out a few authors or genres you wouldn’t normally have tried.

It’s not too late to join the Challenge. And you’ll have plenty of inspiration and some book recommendations to get you started because, in this episode, Shelley and Rowena will share some of the non-fiction books that made it onto their lists for the Challenge. And they also share a couple of favourite fiction reads from the last few months. 

You’ll be adding a few books to your TBR list after this episode! 

• Two Booked Up Episode 22: Reinvigorate your Reading with the 23 for 2023 Reading Challenge


• Two Booked Up Episode 28: The Reading Challenge is ON

Rowena’s List

• Whole Notes by Ed Ayres


• The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer


• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz


• The Third Space by Adam Fraser


• Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell


• The Power of Giving Away Power by Matthew Barzun


• Fabulous But Broke by Melissa Browne


• The Life List; Master Every Moment to Live an Audacious Life by Kate Christie


• Did I Ever Tell You This? By Sam Neill


• The Instant by Amy Liptrot

Shelley’s List

• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft<...

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 listener questions, and others are ones they have used in their own behind-the-scenes process. Rowena and Shelley are pulling back the curtain on Two Booked Up in this episode.

Additionally, they are taking a big-picture view of all the episodes that have aired and are sharing their favourite takeaways and the books or ideas they keep coming back to!

And if this is your first Two Booked Up episode, welcome! This will also be a great episode to give you a taste of what the podcast is all about and give you some ideas on where to start diving into our back catalogue. 

Join Rowena and Shelley as they celebrate the Two Booked Up anniversary.

• The Four Tendencies
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 1 - The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 2 - Personal Life and The Four Tendencies
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 3 - Running Your Own Business using The Four Tendencies 
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 4 - Take Yourself on a Date
  
  



• The Lazy Genius Way
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 6 - The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi - Overview and Top Takeaways
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 7 - How We Are “Lazy Geniusing” our Lives - and how you can too
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 8 - Our Best Tips to “Lazy Genius” Your Business (Inspired by The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi)
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 9 - The Power of “Naming What Matters” (Inspired by The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi)
  
  

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 business. And Rowena's phrase for the year, "curate and cultivate" has resulted in her writing a novel — much to her (happy) surprise!

If you've ever wondered how a "word of the year" actually works — then there's plenty for you in this episode. Shelley and Rowena will share more on how their words/phrases have helped them with intention-setting and a light focus to the year.

Two Booked Up Episode 21 - February is the New January

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Rowena’s Author Opt-In - Signup to hear more about her new novel, Avoiding The Friend Zone, coming soon!

Have you signed up for the Two Booked Up 23 for 2023 Reading Challenge? This is a playful way you can build a reading habit and bring some intention to your reading life. We’ll be talking about the books we’ve each been reading for the Challenge in our next episode.

Sign up for your PDF Checklist for the Two Booked Up 23 for 2023 Reading Challenge here. 

When you download the PDF, we’ll add you to our Two Booked Up Email list so that we can continue the fun together (but you can unsubscribe anytime).

Find us online at twobookedup.com and keep in touch with Two Booked Up via email by signing up for the Two Booked Up Bookclub.

Connect with Rowena @rowenamabbott on IG and at rowenamabbott.com. You can also get Rowena’s FREE e-book, The A - Z of Career and Life Confidence here.

Conn...

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 that stand out at this point of the journey. If you’ve been with Shelley and Rowena throughout Season 2, this will be a great episode to tie up some of the common themes and maybe direct you to a few episodes you want to revisit.

And if this is your first Two Booked Up episode, welcome! This will also be a great episode to give you a taste of what the podcast is all about and give you some ideas on where to start diving into our back catalogue. 

Come and join Shelley and Rowena in conversation as they revisit the highlights and standouts of Season 2 of Two Booked Up!

• Atomic Habits
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 23 - What’s the Big Deal about Atomic Habits?
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 24 - Supportive Habits: Intention + Habits = Change that’s Worth it
  
  



• Four Thousand Weeks
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 25 - Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Overview
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 26 - How to Become a Better Procrastinator, inspired by Four Thousand Weeks
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 27 - How to Use Your Time with Intention, insights from Four Thousand Weeks
  
  



• Workstyle
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 29 — Workstyle Overview
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 30 — Shelley and Rowena share their own Workstyle Stories
  
  
  • Two Booked Up Episode 31 - In Conversation with Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst about Workstyle
  
  

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 something both Shelley and Rowena are passionate about.

Listen in to hear Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst share what inspired them to create Workstyle, and how you too can embrace your own individualised workstyles and play your part in the wider Workstyle Revolution.

This episode is also available on YouTube in video format.

• Learn more about the Workstyle Revolution


• Join the Workstyle Community on Slack


• Lizzie Penny LizzieTheWorkstyler on Instagram and Lizzie Penny on LinkedIn


• Alex Hirst — AlexTheWorkstyler on Instagram and Alex Hirst on LinkedIn


• Two Booked Up Episode 29 — Workstyle Overview


• Two Booked Up Episode 30 — Shelley and Rowena share their own Workstyle Stories


• South African Listeners! Want a hardback version of Workstyle? Email [email protected] and let’s see if we can arrange a bulk order.


• Alternatively, Workstyle is available on Kindle and Audible on Amazon.com and