  We propose a kind of Bak-Sneppen dynamics as a general optimization technique
to treat magnetic systems. The resulting dynamics shows self-organized
criticality with power law scaling of the spatial and temporal correlations. An
alternative method of the extremal optimization is also analyzed here. We
provided a numerical confirmation that, for any possible value of its free
parameter $\tau$, the extremal optimization dynamics exhibits a non-critical
behavior with an infinite spatial range and exponential decay of the
avalanches. Using the chiral clock model as our test system, we compare the
efficiency of the two dynamics with regard to their abilities to find the
system's ground state.
