The Book Nook {January}

As I mentioned earlier this month, I have a stack of books on my 2012 "To Read" list, and more than a few of them are already sitting next to the bed, waiting for their turn. I've got several in progress at the moment, and have been carving out reading time each day (by cutting back on Internet stuff), which means that at twelve days into the new year, I can say, so far, so good.

This is also the first month of the 2012 Booking It year*, and Jessica's selection for January, One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler by Tsh Oxenreider, intrigued me. While it looked interesting, I honestly had no intention of buying the book. What can I say? I'm cheap and I don't enjoy reading ebooks. However, after seeing several positive reviews (including Anne's), I decided it might be worth the $5 for an instant download to my Kindle for PC reader. Although in the past I have not enjoyed reading on the laptop, I have to admit that I am sucked in by One Bite at at Time.

The chapters in One Bite are short, and it's easy to read one or two of them if you only have a few minutes. Each chapter ends with easy-to-implement plans on how you can break down larger goals into smaller bites (much like my Little Bites posts) that will help you turn chores into daily habits. I particularly enjoyed her chapters on creating morning and evening routines, as well as writing out a family purpose statement (a great follow-up on what we're working towards).

While most of what she writes is common sense, and about half of the book is already available for free on her blog, I still found that it helps to have a little extra written encouragement to give you the jump start you need to start taking action. I read a couple of chapters each day, and it has already been helpful to me as I work on developing my time management and organizational skills.

In the end, what I got out of One Bite at a Time were ideas for small changes that can make a big impact. As someone who can be easily overwhelmed by the big picture, the whole idea of breaking it down into do-able steps is an idea that appeals to me. It's also something that I've clearly been thinking (and blogging) about, so Tsh's book arrived at the perfect time for me as I attempt to form some helpful daily habits. In my humble opinion, it's well worth the $5 to download One Bite, and it's certainly worth your time to read it if you struggle at all with staying on top of things, be it finances, meal planning, or that home office-turned-disaster-area.

*If you want to read more reviews of One Bite, or link up to the first Booking It post, today is the day, so head on over to Life as MOM and see what everyone is talking about!