What I’m Reading: Living Well Spending Less

Hot off the presses, Living Well Spending Less by Pro-blogger Ruth Soukup, is already an Amazon bestseller, and for good reason! Chock full of advice on how to, well…. live well and spend less, there is just no way you are not going to find some encouraging, inspiring and practical advice in Ruth’s book.  I just love it when people who have been in the trenches of life and lived to tell about it share their words of wisdom with the rest of us!

One of my biggest take aways from Living Well Spending Less came from Chapter 5: We all get the Same Twenty-Four Hours. In this chapter, Ruth speaks to the power of creating good habits, especially a morning routine. Not anything I haven’t heard before, but she went into detail about not just creating a morning routine, but creating the habit of a morning routine. Once we have done something enough times for it to become a habit, it seems that a different part of our brain kicks into gear and we can complete that task effortlessly. (Think about brushing your teeth before bed- Do you have to leave yourself a note to do that every night or is it something you do no matter how tired you are or how late it is? That’s because it’s a habit- you don’t even have to think about it.)

Ok, so creating a successful morning routine will become a habit once you’ve done it enough, but here is where I really had a light bulb moment. Ruth goes on to explain that she made a list of all the tasks she wanted to become habits as part of her morning routine.  For example- drink a glass of water upon awakening, take ten minutes to plan her day, spend time in prayer and Bible reading, etc. Now, I’m a morning person and I like getting up early and getting some things done first thing to start my day out. But I had never tried writing it down and doing it in that exact order each day. This was an epiphany to me, because I tend to try to go at things like a crazy person, trying to jam too many things into a limited time slot. Also, I might wake up most mornings not sure what I need to do or what I should start with. Having it written down and following the list makes it so easy! Let me share my morning routine with you.  I put this in the front of my planner so I can refer to it each morning (until it becomes a habit 😉

My Morning Routine

Read Positive Declarations

Read my Vision and Goals- long-term, monthly and weekly

Plan my day and set daily goals

Spend time reading the Bible and in prayer

Yoga/stretching

Shower/Dress/Breakfast

I also added a time frame into my routine, since I tend to get caught up in one thing or another and don’t make it to the next item if I’m not careful. I spend about 20 minutes on my goals and planning, 20 minutes reading the Word and praying and end with 20 minutes of Yoga. After that, its shower, get the kids up, and start the day. I can’t tell you how grounding it is to spend that first hour of the day preparing for the day ahead.  I actually have an evening routine as well, but it’s pretty simple.

My Evening Routine

Lay out my clothes for the next day

Take a few minutes to plan for the next day and plan meals for the next day

Wash face/brush teeth

Bed at 10 ( still working on this one!)

Do you have a morning routine? Please share with me what you do every morning to start the day off right! If you don’t have a morning routine, try writing one out and give it a try for a week, even if you only get up ten minutes earlier than usual to pray and think. Then come back and tell me what you think!

There was so much more in Living Well Spending Less that I want to share, so I might have to revisit it in another post. Make sure to grab the book and let me know what you think of it!