The Getting Shit Done Buddy System

Chapter 13

This post is a chapter of the book It Ain’t Gonna Lick Itself: Creating and Maintaining Living Spaces That Make Your Life Better (In Spite Of Everything) by Hanne Blank Boyd.

Click here for the full table of contents.

---

It ain’t gonna lick itself, but there’s no law saying you can’t lick it together. The Buddy System is a classic for a reason: it works.

The Getting Shit Done Buddy system is just the application of the buddy system to the particular kind of shit you have to get done. You have a chosen person -- your buddy -- who knows that you’re trying to get shit done and who has agreed to help you do it by checking in with you, seeing how things are going, offering a little moral support here and there, and, if needed, applying a little accountability to help you actually do the things you’re trying to do.

It’s just like using the buddy system when you’re swimming so there’s someone who knows to keep an eye out for your safety, or when you’re going out on a date and you want a friend you can call to say you got home safe or to ask them to please text you so you can claim there’s an emergency and leave before you do in fact die of mansplaining, vapidity, and boredom.

(image)

Your Getting Shit Done Buddy can be in person with you wherever you’re working, if that’s an option and it’s something you find helpful. You can talk on the phone, or hang out on a video call. You can text them periodic updates and before/after pics. You can share task lists. You can bitch and whine and moan and kvetch while you’re doing it and you can preen and congratulate and praise and applaud when it’s done. You can show them the weird shit you found in the back of the drawer or impress them with just how disgusting the mystery slime in the vegetable bin is. You should absolutely dazzle them with the lovely end results, and shower them with enthusiasm and praise when they show you theirs.