Ready for Anything Book Summary - Ready for Anything Book explained in key points

Ready for Anything summary

David Allen

52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life

3.7 (68 ratings)
15 mins
Table of Contents

    Ready for Anything
    Summary of 9 key ideas

    Audio & text in the Blinkist app
    Key idea 1 of 9

    Having too many things on your mind will hamper your creativity.

    Unlike those tasks that don't demand much from your brain – like filling out forms, writing a shopping list or responding to a routine email – creative work requires lots of “mental horsepower.”

    Why is this?

    First, creative work is a mental balancing act. At any one time, a creative act requires that you keep in mind – and evaluate – many different considerations simultaneously.

    For example, when a screenwriter is in the process of writing a script, she has to reckon with many different things. She must come up with a convincing story and a compelling narrative. She will need to invent effective visual metaphors for the characters' emotional states – like, using heavy rainfall to symbolize sadness. She'll have to ensure that the script doesn't require too many different shooting locations, as that will increase production costs. And she'll also have to do a lot of background research, especially if her story is set in an ancient era, or something similar.

    Balancing all of these factors simultaneously requires a lot of mental effort. Moreover, that effort depends on us having a kind of mental “storage space.” However, for most of us, this space is at a premium.

    All of the information that will be relevant in the short- to mid-term is stored in what we'll call a kind of psychic RAM. The information that we store there ranges from the subtotal of a bill that you're calculating to the fact that you need to buy milk. Crucially, creative thought also depends on this psychic RAM.

    Unfortunately, though, the capacity of psychic RAM is limited. Attempting to keep in mind a lot of information at once will result in your RAM becoming too full to process any new ideas. Which means, of course, that your creativity will suffer.

    If we cannot be creative while our heads are filled with mundane details, memos, facts and so on, then it follows that we must find a way to clear our minds of such information.

    Want to see all full key ideas from Ready for Anything?

    Key ideas in Ready for Anything

    More knowledge in less time
    Read or listen
    Read or listen
    Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
    Find your next read
    Find your next read
    Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
    Shortcasts
    Shortcasts New
    We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

    What is Ready for Anything about?

    In Ready for Anything, productivity expert David Allen presents a variety of techniques that will help you clear your mind and your desk, deal with the things that hold you back, and prepare for all the creative, challenging and rewarding projects that will come your way. Additionally, the book serves as an introduction to the general principles of Allen’s groundbreaking productivity system.

    Best quote from Ready for Anything

    When mental space has too many distractions, unmanaged agreements and loops, flow is limited.

    —David Allen
    example alt text

    Who should read Ready for Anything?

    • Anyone who wants to make space in their life to work on the projects they love
    • Anyone who liked Getting Things Done and wants to learn more about the system
    • Anyone who is dissatisfied by conventional time-management systems

    About the Author

    Productivity consultant David Allen is considered one of the leading experts on organizational and personal productivity. Best known for creating the highly popular “Getting Things Done” time-management method – and authoring the bestselling book of the same name – Allen is also ranked among the top 5 executive coaches in the world.

    Categories with Ready for Anything

    Books like Ready for Anything

    People ❤️ Blinkist
    Sven O.

    It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

    Thi Viet Quynh N.

    Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

    Jonathan A.

    Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

    Renee D.

    Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.

    People also liked

    Start growing with Blinkist now
    28 Million
    Downloads on all platforms
    4.7 Stars
    Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
    91%
    Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
    *Based on survey data from Blinkist customers
    Powerful ideas from top nonfiction

    Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,000+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.

    Start your free trial