The Myth of the Magic Bullet

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.

In one of my online reading groups, I’ve seen a lot of talk back and forth in the past few days about GTD systems. It started out with someone saying that they can’t “get it right”, and then it went from there into a discussion about modifications of the GTD system.

My response to this is that there is no magic bullet in anything. 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 method of Getting Things Done 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, 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.