Getting Out from Under : Redefining Your Priorities in an Overwhelming World : A Powerful Program for Personal Change (Hardcover)

by Stephanie Winston (Author) "My friend Mary recently came home from work to find that a pipe had begun leaking under her kitchen sink, causing quite a mess..." (more)
Key Phrases: getting out from under, Solar System Technique, Solar System Chart, Master List (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From the bestselling author of Getting Organized, an enlightening yet practical program for restructuring your life to meet the conflicting demands on your time "I should read more, I should work out three times a week, I should be able to see my child's soccer games, I should be able to do it all." Sound familiar? With a growing list of priorities to shuffle in an inflexibly short time frame and a burgeoning affliction of guilt and disappointment at not being able to handle everything perfectly, Americans are longing for a prescription for relieving the pressures of an overwhelming world.

Stephanie Winston, master of home and office efficiency and author of the New York Times bestselling classic Getting Organized, has devised such a plan. The prioritization and self-evaluation techniques in Getting Out from Under will help turn down the noise level in our heads and bring the way in which we live our lives back into line with our fundamental values. A powerful program for making meaningful change to an overwhelmed life, Getting Out from Under features the Solar System Technique, an ingenious new way to chart and pinpoint the conflicting demands on time and energy. Flash organizing tips and downshifting advice provide the follow-up suggestions for adjusting day-to-day life based on the problem areas brought to light by the Solar System results.

About the Author
Stephanie Winston is the author of the New York Times paperback bestseller Getting Organized, Stephanie Winston's Best Organizing Tips, and The Organized Executive, a highly acclaimed business guide to organization and time management. The founder and director of The Organizing Principle, a time-management consulting firm whose clients include American Express, Xerox, Merck Corporation, Morgan Stanley, and Campbell Soup, she lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 29, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738200980
• ISBN-13: 978-0738200989
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,276,679 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Original Approach to Defining Priorities, April 18, 2000

By	N. Lawing (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Getting Out from Under: Redefining Your Priorities in an Overwhelming World (Paperback)

Winston dealt with the external clutter in our lives in her first few books. In this book she effectively tackles the internal clutter which leaves us feeling scattered and unfulfilled. She does this by performing "time triage" in the three main sections of the book. First, she deals with emergency situations in people's schedules, citing examples from her clients and offering suggestions and strategies on how to add time to your day immediately. Then she moves on to "Examine Your Personal Universe" and guides you through creating a solar system technique to help clarify what's really important in your life. Finally, she reveals methods for acting on what you learned about yourself in the solar system exercise. The book is clear and well-written. So why just 4 stars? Perhaps too much ground is covered too quickly, from cooperative housing to changing jobs, but her ideas are a good launching pad for effecting life changes. I needed more help with basic time robbers and did not get enough help there, but the exercises in values clarification were quite helpful. The book does live up to its subtitle: "Redefining Your Priorities in an Overwhelming World."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful book that will help you restructure your life, March 24, 2002

By	Blaine Greenfield "eclectic reader" (Belle Meade, NJ) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Getting Out from Under: Redefining Your Priorities in an Overwhelming World (Paperback)

Heard the abridged version of GETTING OUT FROM UNDER by
best-selling organizational guru Stephanie Winston . . . it was so
good that I now want to go back and get the book so I can read
all her practical ideas . . . I've enjoyed Winston before (her GETTING
ORGANIZED is considered a classic in the field) . . . this latest
effort switches her from writing about "things" to helping you
restructure your life to meet the conflicting demands on both
your time and energy.

I appreciated the fact that she reminded me about the constant
need to TRAF; i.e., when you have paper, you can only toss it,
refer it to somebody else, , act on it or file it . . . this, of course,
is often easier said than done . . . but I shall try to do so! . . . in
addition, i appreciated being introduced to her BOAT acronym
for breaking very big life goals into a system of organized
tasks . . . all you need to do is brainstorm what needs to
be done, organize a strategy for getting it done, add tasks to
your daily list to get it done, and then time spread these tasks.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from the Organization Queen Stephanie Winston, February 1, 2001

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Getting Out from Under: Redefining Your Priorities in an Overwhelming World (Paperback)

I must have every book Winston has written, and I've definitely profited by them.

This book is a little harder to grasp because (1) you are not moving THINGS but ordering your TIME and (2) you don't always have control over other people as you would your filing cabinet and closets. Winston does deal with time robbers and emergencies--which are some of those uncontrollable things, and give good hints for organizing your day.

I think it is a bit ambitious to include job changing in such a book , but since this is a task that you must make time for and that many people find hard to schedule because of inertia or unwillingness or the unpleasantness of getting going on a job search, I suppose it is just as well that this topic is covered. But for job hunting, you'd probably need a more specific book.