my approach to taking "one bite at a time"

Hello Monday! This morning, I'd like to share a little book review with you.

Most of you might be familiar with the Simple Living media blogs (one of them is Simple Mom, which is one of my favourite blogs ever, and has been for a long time!!). The founder, Tsh Oxenreider, published an ebook not too long ago, called  One Bite at a Time.

The ebook contains 52 projects for making life simpler, covering areas such as green living, money management, organizing your space and taking care of yourself.

In the author's own words:
"52 tasks. Practical. Do-able. Given to you in a one-at-a-time, take-a-breath format, for you to tackle at your own comfortable pace. You know what you should do, you just need a handbook. That is the gift this book is giving you."

I love that due to the fact that it is an ebook makes it really affordable. You can read it on your computer screen (or your Kindle or Nook) or you can print it out and bind it (or have it done in a shop, which is what i did). Because I had it printed myself,  it doesn't feel like a "real" book, it's more of a workbook or exercise book. That helps me not to have a problem with marking stuff, underlining passages and taking extensive notes.



 How i work with this ebook:

There are 52 projects in the book, so it would be great to work through it in a year. I decided to give it a different go, though. I devided (some, not all) of the projects into 3 categories:

cat. 1: aspects of simplifying my life that I am already practicing (like having switched to gentle, eco-friendly hair care)
cat. 2: projects I once started but then dropped for some reason or the other (like making a dinner-plan)
cat. 3: things I do but wish i could be more passionate/ consistent about (like waking up earlier).

I then looked for projects related to the 3 categories and worked out a simple spreadsheet which I keep in the front of the book. I hope this will keep me motivated, as I can look at the projects I'm working on at one glance and it doesn't seem overwhelming. I'm giving myself several weeks, maybe even a few months, to get into the routine.

Another thing that helped me is to group certain projects. For example, I grouped the project establish a morning routine with the projects create a daily to do list and drink more water. Creating the to do list is part of my morning routine now and I've added little symbols (inspired by images I saw on Pinterest) for glasses of water to track my water intake during the day. Now if I can add wake up earlier to the group i'd feel even better :)


All in all, I think the ebook is a great tool to get inspired to find your very own way of simplifying, no matter how your family or life situation may be.

The author is not rigid about the way of handling things, there are no rules about what to do first, what to focus on etc., but the book is developed in a very flexible, openminded way so that each reader can personalize his/her approach of tackling the projects.

Curious? Head over here to learn more.

(oh yes and i'd just like to mention this is a 100% personal, nonpaid review!)

5 comments:

Tracey ~ Clover said...

Thank you Sylvia, I will head over and check it out, sounds fun.
Have a great Monday.

karen said...

I love organizing! I've been writing to do lists for ever and it keeps me on track for the day :)

barefoot mama said...

This is wonderful! I have never heard of the blog or the book. Im excited about checking them out. Thank you!! -B

simona said...

i do write (seemingly endless) to-do lists, and somehow i always end up having several lists at the time. and for example right now i can't find one of them... :(
the idea with the water glasses is really neat, i definitely need to drink more and that would be a good way of keeping track.

Sara {home is where the cookies are} said...

Oh, I've seen this before and was intrigued then as well. I think maybe it's time for me to dive in. Thanks for the reminder!

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