In Getting Things Done, David Allen offered a breakthrough system to enhance productivity-at work and in daily life. Now "the guru of personal productivity" (Fast Company) asks readers what is holding them back and shows how they can be ready for anything-with a clear mind, a clear deck, and clear intentions.

Based on Allen's highly popular e-newsletter, Principles of Productivity, Ready for Anything offers fifty-two principles to clear your head, focus productively, create structures that work, and get in motion, including:

* stability on one level opens creativity on another

* you can't win a game you haven't defined

* the value of a future goal is the present change it fosters

With wit, motivational insights, and inspiring quotes, Ready for Anything shows readers how to make things happen with less effort, stress, and ineffectiveness, and lots more energy, creativity, and clarity. This is the perfect book for anyone wanting to work and live at their very best.

With wit, motivational insights, and inspiring quotes, "Ready for Anything" shows readers how to make things happen with less effort, stress, and ineffectiveness, and lots more energy, creativity, and clarity. This is the perfect book for those wanting to work and live at their very best.

David Allen is president of the David Allen Company and has more than two decades' experience as a management consultant and executive coach, having worked with organizations such as Merck, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. Navy. He has been featured in Fortune, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications.

Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Making It Easy to Take It Easy xvii

PART I: CLEAR YOUR HEAD FOR CREATIVITY

or Getting the Loose Ends to Leave You Alone 1

1. Cleaning up creates new directions. 3

Prepared for the Unknown?

2. You can only feel good about what youre not doing when you know what youre not doing. 6

Why Getting Organized Usually Hasnt Worked

3. Knowing your commitments creates better choices of new ones. 9

When the Center Is the Edge

4. Getting to where youre going requires knowing where you are. 12

Forget the FutureJust Get a Grip

5. Infinite opportunity is utilized by finite possibility. 15

The One-Minute Workflow Manager

6. Two commitments in your head create stress and failure. 18

Getting Things Done: Reactive or Responsive?

7. Priorities function only at the conscious level. 21

The Danger of Not as Important Projects

8. Closing open loops releases energy. 24

The Magical Mundane

9. If its on your mind, its probably not getting done. 26

The ABCs of Psychic RAM

10. Creativity shows up when theres space. 29

Is This All There Is?

11. The deeper the channel, the greater the flow. 32

Are You Really Ready for More?

12. Worry is a waste. 35

Getting Thinking off Your Mind

13. You are not your work. 38

The Big Secret About My Lists

PART II: FOCUS PRODUCTIVELY

or Whats the Point of a Point of View? 41

14. For more clarity, look from a higher place. 43

The Play of the Day

15. You wont see how to do it until you see yourself doing it. 46

Waking Up Again to Making It Up Again

16. Working hard enough is impossible. 49

Is It Overtime All the Time?

17. Energy follows thought. 51

What Are You Putting in Front of Your Door?

18. The clearer your purpose, the more ways to fulfill it. 54

Are You Living in Your Living Room?

19. Best is much better than good. 57

How to Be Invincible

20. A change in focus equals a change in result. 60

Are You Ready for Ready?

21. Perspective is the most valuable commodity on the planet. 63

Bootstrapping Yourself into Better

22. You have to think about your stuff more than you think. 66

Productivity Doesnt Happen by Itself

23. You dont have to think about your stuff as much as youre afraid you might. 69

Being Complete with Your Incompletions

24. If you know what youre doing, efficiency is the only improvement opportunity. 72

Stress Transcendence

25. Only one thing on your mind is in the zone. 75

How Important Is Anything but the Most Important Thing?

26. The value of a future goal is the present change it fosters. 78

To Do or to Be? Or Is That the Question?

PART III: CREATE STRUCTURES THAT WORK

or Its Hard to Stay on Track Without Rails 81

27. Stability on one level opens creativity on another. 83

Organization and Creativity: Friends or Foes?

28. Form and function must match for maximum productivity. 85

The Visionary and the Doera Personal Division of Labor

29. Your system has to be better than your mind for your mind to let go. 87

Can Your Mind Keep Its New Job?

30. Response ability improves viability. 90

The Disorder Drug

31. Your system is only as good as its weakest link. 92

How Is Your Wiring Firing?

32. The effectiveness of your system is inversely proportional to your awareness of it. 95

System Success: Silent Running

33. Function follows form. 98

Which Parts of Your Pot Need Stirring?

34. You cant win a game you havent defined. 100

The Scary Swampland Between Thinking and Doing

35. Whenever two or more are responsible for something, usually nobody is. 103

The Inner Committee

36. Prime your principles instead of policing your policies. 106

You Are at Your Best When . . .

37. Use your mind to think about your work, instead of thinking of it. 109

Is Form Formless?

38. You are thinking more valuably than you may think. 111

Freedom and Form Fun

39. The necessity to plan and organize is inversely proportional to your perceived resources. 114

Why the Human Race Is Taking So Long to Evolve

PART IV: RELAX AND GET IN MOTION

or How to Be Where the Action Is 117

40. Youre the only one playing your game. 119

The New Fundamentals

41. Too controlled is out of control. 122

Are You an Organizing Groupie?

42. The better you get, the better youd better get. 125

Jump!

43. Trusting your action choice requires multilevel self-management. 127

Its 9:45 in the Morning. What Should I Do?

44. Your power is proportional to your ability to relax. 130

The Freedom/Productivity Equation

45. Surprises, expected, are no surprise. 133

Productively Peering into the Pit

46. The longer your horizon, the smoother your moves. 136

The Rhythm of Things

47. You speed up by slowing down. 139

Should the Pot Simmer?

48. You dont have time to do any project. 141

The Subtle Sirens of the Long Term

49. Small things, done consistently, create major impact. 144

The Critical 20 Percent

50. You have to do something to know something. 146

Whos Really Interested in Productivity? (I Mean, Really?)

51. Its easier to move when youre in motion. 149

Overwhelmed? Take the Helm

52. The biggest successes come from the most failures. 151

The Year of Better Choices

PART V: REMIND YOURSELF OF THE FUNDAMENTALS

or Common Sense Isnt That Common 155

THE FIVE PHASES OF WORKFLOW MASTERY 157

PROCESSING AND ORGANIZING WORKFLOW 160

THE NATURAL PLANNING MODEL 161

THE WEEKLY REVIEW 163

Afterword 165