Smart Podcast, Trashy Books Podcast

275. Reading, Writing, and the Power of Dairy: A Little Behind the Scenes with Amanda and Sarah

Amanda and I talk about the behind the scenes elements of running Smart Bitches, and what parts we love most of all. We discuss our favorite features and how some of them came to be. We also talk a little about how we organize our reading for SBTB and for other outlets (SPOILER: There are spreadsheets involved – and I’ll link to mine in the show notes) and how we schedule and track our reading when we get books way, way, way in advance. We also talk about being infused with the power of dairy, and my frustration with entrepredudebro productivity guides.

Then, I answer a question about pitching yourself for the podcast. I’ve had a few questions about this via email, and I’m  planning the 2018 season now, so I hope this is helpful.

Read the transcript

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Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:

We also mentioned the following:

We also talked about Stardew Valley, one of our favorite games.

And of course: the Reading Tracking Spreadsheet. This is how I organize my reading and track my to-read books based on release date, reading schedule, and library book due date.

Here’s a link to a copy of my reading spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16BFAn8VzJKlQOnCzrNu2DRRb4uV1RdWU1uQkea4qGwk/edit?usp=sharing

This link is view-only.

All you need to do is click file, then Make a Copy to save your own version to your Google Drive.

Screenshot with MASSIVE red arrows pointing to file and Make a Copy

Then you can replace the heading text and fields as you want with what’s useful and helpful for you.

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Thanks for listening!

This Episode's Music

Adeste Fiddles Album CoverOur music is provided by Sassy Outwater. Thanks, Sassy!

All the music in this episode is by Deviations Project from their holiday album Adeste Fiddles.

This is probably my favorite track. This is Three Ships. You can find this album at Amazon.


Podcast Sponsor

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Transcript

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This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.

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  1. Emily C says:

    I haven’t even listened yet, but I saw the word Spreadsheet (!) and went right to save that link. The details nerd in me has been obsessed with all the things Excel and Google docs can do lately- I had a spreadsheet started for my kids’ Christmas shopping in October

  2. JayneH says:

    Can you post a link to how you export your kindle notes into a spreadsheet?

  3. Margaret says:

    Great spreadsheet, Sarah! I was facing a similar dilemma a few years ago, so I turned to my then 16-year-old son who devised a similar Google spreadsheet for me. Since I listen to A LOT of audio books, I have a column for the narrator’s name as well, since there are some I love and some I hate. What’s great is that I can pull it up on my phone as well as my laptop and so can find the name of a particular book when I’m out in the world talking with people. (I have a terrible memory for book titles!)

  4. SB Sarah says:

    Oh that is VERY smart, to track audiobook narrators you like. What a brilliant idea!!

  5. SB Sarah says:

    Jayne:

    Sure! First, there is a service that does so, and links to Evernote and other options if you’re needing a more robust note exporting option (like for research): https://www.clippings.io/

    But to export notes and highlights, you do the following. Your notes and highlights are on this page (you need to be logged in, obviously):

    https://read.amazon.com/notebook

    Your most recent books (including the highlights and notes from library books I’ve recently returned, much to my surprise) should be on the left sidebar, and you can click to see your notes and highlighted sections.

  6. Julia aka mizzelle says:

    Thank you for the reading spreadsheet (I’ve done similar ones for tracking TBR releases)– and good idea to include audiobook narrators! A question: How do you handle the longer notes on the books? Do you just make the cell bigger?

  7. Demi says:

    “my frustration with entrepredudebro productivity guides”
    Oh yes yes yes!

  8. SQ says:

    I love spreadsheets! I make them for everything and track my reading with one as well, though lately I’ve been trying to use both a spreadsheet and goodreads and it’s gotten a bit confusing. Thanks for sharing yours, I love to see how others organize their information (data nerd alert). Ok, now I will actually listen to the podcast, I just got overly excited there for a second 🙂

  9. SQ says:

    Other things I like to keep track of in my spreadsheet are: whether or not it was an audio, if this was a re-read (nerd alert#2 – conditional formatting!), and I also like to make note of the series and number in the series if it applies. I like the “where is it?” section you have, Sarah – I use multiple apps and the library so I often have to go hunting if I want to return to a book!

  10. Erin says:

    Sarah, do you listen to Kevin Sonney’s Productivity Alchemy podcast? He puts a lot of emphasis on balancing work and home life and on *not* burning out.

  11. Julia aka mizzelle says:

    @SQ Re: # in a series: YES! Very important with longer series so I can see at a glance where I am, especially if the titles/covers are similar.

    On audio: I listen to a lot of Big Finish audios for Doctor Who/etc, so I have to figure out if a) include it in the main list b) how does it get tracked.

  12. Rhonda says:

    I loved the discussion of “entrepreduedbro” productivity guides. I found it validating that Sarah talked about balancing work and all of the other parts of life. I end up with impostor syndrome or other feelings of insufficiency because the world (or parts of it) seem to be saying that we must have “important” jobs or have side gigs or volunteer gigs working for social change. I aspire to a more interesting/activist job once I’m done this round of grad school, but I also value being involved in my faith community, spending time with friends, having hobbies, as well as managing life with my spouse and feline overlords. I hope we’ll hear when Sarah finds productivity guides that recognize this!

  13. SB Sarah says:

    @Rhonda: Thank you! I know EXACTLY what you mean. If I don’t find the productivity guides that address building the life you want with ways to be productive in every area of that life, I’ll have to write it myself, I think! I completely agree that having a job that allows you to do all the other things you want to do is just as valid and fulfilling. I think productivity and creative work in your daily life aren’t exclusive to those who focus solely on it. I don’t think I’ve focused solely on one thing in my life in many many…many years.

  14. Andrea says:

    I love it when I stumble across someone else with a reading spreadsheet. I starting tracking my books on a Google sheet because I wasn’t satisfied with the amount of information on Goodreads’ “stats” page, and I am so nerdily proud of the sheet I built! It has a whole page of tables and graphs to show page counts and genres and reading time and so much more! Here’s last year’s version, if anybody wants to snoop or make a copy for their own use: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nDy1H-V1UVXci8xPILG4yFhDyhJ0Aof7M4toP4AKNGE/edit?usp=sharing

  15. SQ says:

    @Andrea – I love your graphs! Hope it’s ok I saved a copy of your spreadsheet. It seems like I’ll be revamping my tracking starting 2018 with all of these great ideas!

  16. Andrea says:

    @SQ Absolutely! Happy book tracking!

  17. I have really enjoyed seeing this site grow over the years. I have only been following you since I started my site eight years ago and just love it and seeing your crew have various interests and that you touch base with all types of genres. Keep up the great work, you have really been an inspiration to me!!!

  18. Jule says:

    I am sure I am stating the obvious but if you have a Goodreads account and you want a spreadsheet you can export all the data ….then add notes or do pivots as you do. Like who’s the author you read the most or who’s the author that’s on your TBR and how many books, etc. Then you can update your notes etc with a vlookup, etc. Ok excel geek out done….for now….Happy Holidays! Thanks for the podcast.

  19. Karen Magno says:

    @Jule that’s good to know you can export Goodreads data!

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