When I pp, I leave the paper on and sew with small stitches... almost to 0 on my machine. That way when I hold the paper to tear it off, it rips off easily. I was just pp this afternoon and trying to remind myself that next time I sit down to do this I need to grab a pair of tweezers which will help me get a hold of tiny pieces that are sometimes hard to start ripping. Occasionally, if I am having trouble getting paper off, I will spray it lightly with water and let it sit for a bit, then it tears off even easier.
Hope this helps you. :-D
PS: I should add that the flower I was doing today had 3 sections to it. I pp each section, trimmed the outside cutting edge and then even left the paper on when I sewed the sections together. After that is when I tore all of the paper off the sections. Since I sew with very small stitches, I have also begun to stitch back a stitch once I have sewn two stitches at the beginning of a seam. I end my stitching with a back stitch or two. This eliminates the stitches coming loose when I am tearing paper off. :-D