Looking for the Perfect System? There Is No Magic Bullet.

Posted on December 16, 2011 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Productivity

This post was originally published on 3 January 2008.

Flylady has a saying that there is no magic pill. People who complain that they can’t get her system going receive the response that you have to jump in where you are. There is no magic method or potion or concoction that is going to make your house clean. The trick of a clean house is to clean it.

This is obvious, when you think about it. A system only works when you work it, in other words.

Every system I have seen discusses starts out with the features of the system, and rapidly moves on to complaints about how people can’t “get it right”.

My response to this is that there is no magic bullet in anything. One housekeeping system (like Flylady) may work for one person and not work for another. One cleaning product may be a lifesaver for someone, and not work at all for another. One way of cleaning a room might work well for one person and another find it completely unworkable. One method of sorting email may work well for someone and make another lose track of everything. One productivity system may work for some, and not work at all for others.

The point is to take something that works for someone, study it, and adapt it. We are all individuals, and it seems that no one solution is going to be right for everyone. Take what you like and leave the rest.

And I also have to wonder, as people are trying to implement the perfect system, Flylady or GTD or DIT, isn’t that just a way of putting off the work? What makes any system work is the DOING behind it.

That’s why they call it Getting Things DONE rather than Getting Things ORGANIZED and why it is DO It Tomorrow rather than THINK ABOUT IT Tomorrow.

Photo by William Hook