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Think Like a Librarian Podcast

Think Like a Librarian Podcast

De : Meredith Silberstein
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 Think Like a Librarian: Systems for Curious Minds aims to guide curious, ambitious people design humane systems for thinking, working, and creating — using librarian-grade frameworks.© 2026 Think Like a Librarian Podcast Art Développement personnel Philosophie Réussite personnelle Sciences sociales
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  • Episode 005: Your System Isn’t Broken. It’s Holding the Wrong Things

    Episode 005: Your System Isn’t Broken. It’s Holding the Wrong Things
    Apr 17 2026
    In this episode, you'll learn... Why projects vs. areas in PARA is the single most important distinction to make, and why mixing them makes everything feel urgent all the timeExit criteria — what they are, why most projects don’t have them, and the one sentence that changes everythingWhy self-paced courses are a sneaky trap (and how to split them so they stop haunting you)Resources vs. archives: the difference between a waiting room and a graveyardThe reversed hanger method — borrowed from professional organizers — as a practical archiving triggerWhy “the archive” is not admitting defeat. It’s system hygiene. A Story from the LibraryLibraries have been running a version of PARA for a long time — they just don't call it that. Think about what a library actually holds. Projects are things with a clear endpoint: planning the summer reading program, coordinating an author visit, spending a grant before June. When the program ends, the project closes. Areas are ongoing responsibilities — the Makerspace, collection development, reader services. Nobody expects the Makerspace to get "done." It just continues. Resources are reference material: staff manuals, training docs, the policy handbook. Nobody's actively working on the staff manual right now, but when someone needs it, it has to be findable. And Archives hold what's finished — last year's summer reading files, the submitted grant report, the 2019 collection development plan. Not active. Not maintained. But preserved. Nobody at the library feels guilty that the summer reading files are archived. Nobody feels like they're falling behind because the Makerspace is an ongoing responsibility rather than a completed task. The categories make the expectations clear. That's what PARA can do for your own system — not add more structure, but make the right expectations visible. So you know what you're supposed to finish, what you're supposed to maintain, what you're just supposed to be able to find, and what you're allowed to let go of. Episode Takeaway The goal isn't a perfect system. It's a system that's good enough to actually use — one that makes you feel held instead of haunted. A finish line you can cross is infinitely more useful than a perfect one you never reach. So give yourself permission to define 'done' generously. Honestly. In a way that's actually reachable. Because a system that makes you feel behind doesn't mean you're broken. It just might be holding the wrong things. Episode 005: The System isn't Broken. It's Holding the Wrong Things. Featured Segment: Workflow Wisdom One sentence for your projects. One defined review for your system. That’s it.Your challenge: Open your task manager. Pick one item. Ask: “Does this end, or do I maintain it?” Write down one sentence — “I’ll know this is done when…” — before you do anything else with it.This is the fastest way to determine if something is a project vs. an area in the PARA framework. Finding Aids: What's Mentioned in this Episode Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte (2022)The PARA Method by Tiago Forte (2023)Morgen — calendar + task manager with multi-app integrationSnipd — podcast and audiobook highlight and note capture appKeep It Shot — AI-powered screenshot renaming and search for MacSparkle — AI file organizer and cleaner for Mac Let's Stay Connected Try It: Pick one category in your digital life — a folder, a saved list, a collection of bookmarks — and define a time window: 30, 60, or 90 days. Anything in that category that hasn’t been touched in your window goes to Archive. Not deleted. Just moved out of active view. Notice how it feels to make that call ahead of time, before you’re in the emotional moment of deciding whether something is worth keepingSubscribe so you don’t miss future episodes where we’ll tackle how to do a weekly review without the dread, why the questions you ask matter more than the tools you use, and how to build a system that actually fits your real life — not the aspirational one.Share this episode with someone who opens their task manager hoping to feel organized and closes it feeling worse than before they started. And if this episode made you think differently about your to-do list — send it to someone who needs to hear it. Because a list that never shrinks isn’t a reflection of your discipline. It’s a design problem. And design problems have solutions. What's Coming Up Next on Think Like a Librarian: Now that you know how to see what you’re actually holding, the next question is: how do you check in on it regularly — without the review itself becoming another thing you dread? That’s exactly what we’re covering in Episode 006: Visibility Without Burnout: The Librarian’s Weekly Review. Get Your Copy of The Hidden Stacks: Vol. 1 By Sharing Your ReviewScreenshot your review of the Think Like a Librarian podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or any other platform and upload ...
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    28 min
  • Episode 004: What You Call Things Matters More Than Where You Put Them

    Episode 004: What You Call Things Matters More Than Where You Put Them
    Apr 10 2026
    Show Notes Every time you name a file, a folder, or a note, you're making a bet that future-you will search for the same word you're using right now. This week's episode is about why that bet so often fails — and what librarians figured out centuries ago that can help. We're talking naming conventions, controlled vocabularies, and five practical principles for naming things in ways that actually hold up over time. In this episode, you'll learn... Why naming is a design decision — not administrative busywork — with real consequences for findabilityWhat the "vocabulary gap" is and why past-you and future-you don't always speak the same languageHow librarians solved the findability problem centuries ago using controlled vocabulariesFive practical principles for naming files, notes, and folders so future-you can actually find themWhy good systems are forgiving of imperfect names — and how to start building one Featured Segment: Metadata Minute The Search Test Before you name your next file, pause for ten seconds and ask: "If I needed to find this in six months, what would I type into the search bar?" Write down those two or three words. Then check: does your file name contain them? If not, either rename it or add tags that include them. Do this regularly and you'll start to notice patterns — the words your brain actually reaches for. That's data about how your mind works. Use it. A Story from the Library Findability is a 2,000-year-old problem. Around 250 BCE, a scholar named Callimachus created the Pinakes — the first library catalog in the Western world — because the Library of Alexandria held hundreds of thousands of scrolls and no one could find anything. Fast forward to 1815: Thomas Jefferson's personal library became the foundation of the Library of Congress after the British burned the Capitol. Having books still wasn't the same as finding them. So in 1876, Melvil Dewey published the Dewey Decimal Classification, and Charles Cutter published his Rules for a Dictionary Catalog — the first formal systems for organizing by subject and retrieving by author, title, or topic. Then in 1898, the Library of Congress established standardized subject headings (LCSH), now the most widely used controlled vocabulary in the world. The thread connecting all of it to your downloads folder: findability requires consistency. Pick a term. Stick with it. That's the whole lesson. Episode Takeaway "Every time you name something, you're making a bet about what future-you will search for. Naming isn't administrative busywork — it's a design decision with consequences. The best systems assume you'll forget. They're designed for graceful retrieval, not perfect naming." Episode 004: What You Call Things Matters More Than Where You Put Them Finding Aids: What's Mentioned in this Episode Library History & Controlled Vocabularies The Library of Alexandria & Callimachus Kallimachos: The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography by Rudolf Blum (University of Wisconsin Press, 1991) — The definitive scholarly work on Callimachus and the Pinakes The Genius Innovation That Made the Great Library of Alexandria Work - TIME article on the first card catalog Pinakes (Wikipedia) - Details on Callimachus's catalog system Thomas Jefferson's Library • Thomas Jefferson's Library (Library of Congress) — Official LC exhibition • About the Collection (KC Research Guide — How the 1815 Purchase Happened • Jefferson's Books by Douglas Wilson (Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1996) Dewey Decimal Classification Dewey Decimal Classification (OCLC) — Official home of the DDC History of the Dewey Decimal Classification — Wikipedia Overview Dewey Decimal Classification: Principles and Application by Lois Mai Chan (Libraries Unlimited) Library of Congress Subject Headings Library of Congress Subject Headings "Still Robust at 100" (Library of Congress) — History of LCSH Charles Ammi Cutter • Rules for a Dictionary Catalog (Project Gutenberg) — Free full text of Cutter's 1876 rules • Charles Ammi Cutter (Forbes Library Biography) — Excellent bibliographical overview General Reading on Information Organization Books Organizing Knowledge by Jennifer Rowley & Richard Hartley — Comprehensive introduction to information organization The Organization of Information by Arlene G. Taylor & Daniel N. Joudrey — Standard LIS textbook Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger — How digital changes organization How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert — Information architecture for everyone Online Resources History of Information — Database of key moments in information historyISKO Encyclopedia of Knowledge Organization — Scholarly encyclopedia on KO concepts AI-Powered File Renaming Tools These tools can help you batch rename files intelligently — useful for cleaning up messy downloads folders, screenshot libraries, or any collection of poorly-named ...
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    19 min
  • Episode 003: Planning for Energy, not Time

    Episode 003: Planning for Energy, not Time
    Apr 2 2026
    What if the reason your perfectly planned day keeps falling apart isn’t that you need better time management — but that you’ve been measuring the wrong thing entirely?We interact with systems every day without recognizing them as systems — calendars, chore charts, project trackers, workplace policies, fitness apps. And nearly all of them make the same flawed assumptions about human capacity: that our attention is consistent, our availability is predictable, our progress is linear, and our energy is equal from day to day.In this episode, we examine these hidden assumptions and explore why time-based planning fails so many capable people. Drawing on librarian thinking — where systems are designed for patrons with variable needs, not idealized “users” — we discover energy-based planning instead of time-based. Because if a system only works on high-energy days, it’s fragile. Robust systems are designed to hold us on the hard days too. In this episode, you'll learn... Why everyday systems (calendars, project tools, fitness apps) are designed with flawed assumptions about human capacityThe four hidden assumptions most systems make — and why they set us up to failWhy these assumptions hit some people harder (ADHD, chronic illness, caregivers, variable mental health)What librarians know about designing for real humans with variable needsThe difference between time (neutral) and energy (variable) as planning unitsA practical framework for matching tasks to your actual capacity Stories from the Library The invisible systems around us: How calendars treat every hour as equal, project tools assume linear progress, and fitness apps expect consistent outputThe Timing app discovery: How tracking time by category revealed that matching task type to energy mattered more than matching tasks to time slotsIllness and pushing through: Why trying to stick to the schedule during a stretch of illness made recovery slower, not fasterThe library as model: How libraries build systems for peaks, lulls, and re-entry — and what that looks like applied to personal productivity Featured Segment: Workflow Wisdom The Three-Tier Task ListInstead of one monolithic to-do list, try keeping three:High-Energy Tasks — creative work, complex problems, deep thinkingMedium-Energy Tasks — meetings, collaborative work, tasks that need presenceLow-Energy Tasks — admin, email, organizing, autopilot tasksEach day, check your energy first — then pull from the appropriate tier. No guilt for which tier you’re working from. This isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing the right things for the capacity you have. Episode Takeaway "Time doesn't care if you're exhausted. But your systems can. And when your systems honor your energy — not just your hours — that's when real, sustainable productivity becomes possible. Not productivity that burns you out. Productivity that actually fits your life." Episode 003: Planning for Energy, not Time Finding Aids: What's Mentioned in This Episode Think Like a Librarian Ep. 002: Why Systems Fail Smart People Timing app The Four Hidden Assumptions: Consistent attention, predictable availability, linear progress, equal capacity day to day Next time on Think Like a Librarian: Next episode: you didn’t “lose” it — you just can’t remember what you called it. We’re talking why naming is the invisible make-or-break step in any system, and how to name things so future-you can actually find them. Let's stay connected: Try it: Before your next planning session, ask yourself: “What kind of energy do I have today?” Notice how that changes what feels possible.Subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes where we’ll go deeper into designing systems that help you orient and make progress — even when your energy is unpredictable.Share this episode with someone who’s been beating themselves up for not “sticking to the schedule.” Sometimes the most powerful thing we can offer is a different question to ask. Think Like a Librarian: Systems for Curious Minds is a podcast for curious, ambitious humans who want systems that actually work in real life — with all its variability, interruptions, and beautiful complexity. Transcript [00:00:00] Meredith: You planned for that important project, that necessary task. You blocked the time. You sat down. And then — nothing. The time was real. You were physically present. But mentally? You were running on empty. [00:00:11] Maybe you stared at a blank document. Maybe you scrolled your phone for “just a minute” that turned into forty. Maybe you tried to push through anyway and produced something you later deleted. [00:00:21] “Why can’t I just focus?” [00:00:23] “I had the time. What’s wrong with me?” [00:00:25] “Other people seem to do this. Why is it so hard for me?” [00:00:28] The story you tell yourself — without even meaning to — is that you’re the problem. What if I told you the problem wasn’t ...
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    16 min
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