Get Your Act Together: A 7-Day Get-Organized Program For The Overworked, Overbooked, and Overwhelmed [Paperback]

Pam Young (Author), Peggy Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1993

The SLOB Sisters are back after the phenomenal success of Sidetracked Home Executives (750,000 paperback copies sold), with a new program for organizing your home and personal life.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Maintaining that most organization manuals are written by the naturally efficient who can't empathize with the born slob, Young and Jones tell their own stories of the overwhelming messes their households had become and of their recovery. The keys to their program are self-esteem, a buddy system, and 3 5 cards. Their methods are simple and easy to follow. The sisters leaven their practical advice with stories from their own lives, which provide sympathy and encouragement to the reader. No matter how much of a mess you're in, theirs was just as bad (or worse)! A good system, presented with style and sympathy. Recommended.
- Susan B. Hagloch, Tuscarawas Cty. P.L., New Philadelphia, Ohio
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 211 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1st edition (August 4, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060969911
• ISBN-13: 978-0060969912
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

289 of 293 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my life!, April 3, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Get Your Act Together: A 7-Day Get-Organized Program For The Overworked, Overbooked, and Overwhelmed (Paperback)

Really and truly, this book has improved the quality of my life tremendously. Written by the chronically disorganized, for the chronically disorganized, this book hits right at the heart of the problem and gives actual step-by-step advice for turning it around. Would you believe that I have both of my kids in bed by 9:00? That all the dishes are washed, the laundry is folded and put away, that the dog's been walked, the bills are paid and I know precisely how much money is in my checking account? I kid you not. Read this book, and you too can be sitting at the computer at 9:30 writing book reviews for total strangers . . .completely guilt free!

158 of 162 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sold Out Slob Sisters?, February 13, 2006

By 

Vivianne Douglas "Vivianne Douglas" (Ft. Collins, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get Your Act Together: A 7-Day Get-Organized Program For The Overworked, Overbooked, and Overwhelmed (Paperback)

A friend of mine loaned me Sidetracked Home Executives about 15 years ago. I LOVED that book and it changed my life. I lost that book and decided to buy it again, a couple weeks ago, along with Get Your Act Together. Being a huge fan of their style and humor, I couldn't wait to see how Pam and Peggy revamped the card file system. Boy was I disappointed. They are starting to sound more and more like the B.O.'s (born organized) that they claim not to be!

They talked, in the first book about how pointless is was for the born disorganized to make lists and now the new card file system is nothing more than cards filled with lists! There is something really satisfying in putting one job per card and being able to move it to its next spot because it was done. I got a lot out of that system. However, by putting in all these little lists on the new cards, I have to remember to write whether it was done or skipped.... It seems like more of a hassle to me. And then I can't just move the card to the next day (if it was daily) because so many of the other jobs on the card were done.

There isn't the humor of Sidetracked Home Executives and it wasn't insightful either. It sounded like almost every other organization book out there.

Now, for those of you who haven't read the first book (now 20 some odd years old) this could very well work for you. If you've read Sidetracked Home Executives and have followed *that* card file system, this system might still work for you but I would venture to say you'll still go back to the old system. I guess there is always the possibility that the 2 systems could be worked together. I'm still trying to figure out if I can do that in any way shape or form...so this Get Your Act Together book won't have been a complete waste.

I think the "Slob Sisters" should go back and re-read their own first book to remind themselves of what it was like to be disorganized. They've been organized too long. They can't seem to relate as well to the disorganized anymore. They even have a day planner out for almost $100.00 that is for nothing *but* making lists.

Anyway, long story short...or not, I think the old system is the best and this book doesn't have near the information or inspiration of the first. I could relate to them in Sidetracked Home Executives but they don't seem to relate to the born disorganized anymore. Needless to say, I won't be buying any of the other books, tapes, organizers or other things they sell on their website. The first is the best for me. I can see how it could work for some. Please understand this is only my opinion. :)

104 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING book for the disorganized creative person, July 13, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get Your Act Together: A 7-Day Get-Organized Program For The Overworked, Overbooked, and Overwhelmed (Paperback)

I can't say enough about how great this book is. Not only is it very helpful, it is also the funniest book I have ever read. I will never forget reading it on the bus ride home one day and laughing so hard no sound would come out and tears streamed down my face (the other riders surely thought I was a lunatic). The stories of disorganized chaos really hit home. I got copies for friends and family members who all loved it as well. You gotta read it. I grew up in a similar household situation, where disorganization started in the genes and there wasn't enough strict parental disciplinarian action taken with my sisters and I to curb those impending procrastinational, chaotic habits I feared might be with me forever. Pam and Peggy pretty much sum it up when they say the other writers of regular "organizational" books often have no idea HOW bad it can get. This one is for those of us who are so disorganized to the extremes, it's hard to know where to start getting it together. It's so refreshing and inspiring to see two women who really came up with some great, creative techniques for organizing their lives, and I have definitely applied some of their methods which really work. Read it and you won't be sorry.