Clear Your Head for Creativity

Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life
by David Allen

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Cleaning up creates new directions.

Completion of open loops, whether they be major projects or boxes of old stuff we've yet to purge and organize, prepares the ground for cleaner, clearer, and more complete energy for whatever shows up. We're often not sure what's next or what to tackle. At that point, just clean or complete something something obvious and in front of you, right away. Soon you'll have the energy and clarity to know what's next, and you'll have cleared the decks for more effective responsiveness on every front. Process your in-basket, purge your e-mails, or clean your center desk drawer. You've got to do it sometime anyway.

Prepared for the Unknown?

Something is coming probably within a few days that's going to change your world. You don't see it yet. You don't know what it's about. But it's there, rolling inexorably forward, destined to throw you a curve that you do not expect. It could show up sooner or later but it will show up. Trust me.

Write down these words exactly four weeks from today on your calendar: "David Allen said a month ago that something was coming I couldn't foresee that would affect me significantly." Prove me wrong.

Are you ready? Is that unexpected event or input going to add insult to injury by making you feel more out of control? Or are you going to see it as the next creative opportunity that takes you to a new level of expression and contribution? How are you preparing for the surprises that the new experience will invariably throw your way?

I think there are basically two levels to handle for any unforeseen opportunity:

1. The spiritual. If God is all, and you're part of that, just relax.

2. All the rest. For this you must get your act together, so you can shift gears as required.

An old Asian proverb says, "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war." The military model is not a bad one in the armed forces, if you're not fighting, you're training. Most people get ready for change a few days before a long vacation, when they divorce and have to sell everything they own and move, or when some other major life event causes them to rethink it all and get some clarity around their commitments and their "stuff." They're cleaning up, closing up, and renegotiating all their agreements with themselves and others.

I suggest you do that weekly. And get yourself organized enough so that when a staff meeting is late to start, you're processing your in-basket or cranking down your FYI-to-read stack. Or when you're waiting for your spouse to get ready (like, actually ready), you're checking to see if there's a phone call you could make. I know very few people on the planet who care enough about their time and what they're doing, every minute, to maximize those kinds of windows. If you weren't taking advantage of your time that way, I'd ask yourself, Why not?

When's the last time you updated your projects list (those things that take more than one action to complete) and brought it current, with next actions for each one placed in your system? The degree to which you haven't done that is the degree to which you are enduring unnecessary stress.

And if you don't have one yet, get a ubiquitous idea-capturing tool. Something to write or record things on, whenever they occur to you. You need something that's always with you on the beach, in the health club, at your desk, out for dinner. It's very helpful if you can tie it in with your wallet or purse, which is already in that category for you. The older, wiser, and more sophisticated you get, personally and professionally, the more your best ideas about something happen somewhere they can't be implemented at that moment.

You might understand intellectually that you should get everything out of your head that has potential future value or represents potential agreements with yourself and others. But you have to put that into practice by writing it down when it pops in. If you are getting any "thing to do" out of reading this, where are you recording that? Pocket notebooks, three-by-five cards, miniature recorders whatever.

Get your ubiquitous capture tool in place and functioning as a standard life accessory. Going somewhere without it should feel as weird as going out without shoes on. It'll take you to a whole new level of creative thinking and doing.

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

— SAMUEL JOHNSON

It is the act of forgiveness that opens up the only possible way to think creatively about the future at all.

— FATHER DESMOND WILSON

When you know everything, you are like a dark sky. Sometimes a flashing will come through the dark sky. After it passes, you forget all about it, and there is nothing left but the dark sky. The key is never being surprised when all of a sudden a thunderbolt breaks through. And when the lightning does flash, a wonderful sight may be seen. When we have emptiness, we are always prepared for watching the flashing.

— SHUNRYU SUZUKI

By the way ...

• Where are your potential cleanup areas?
• What's the next one to tackle, when you're not sure what else to be doing?
• What could you forgive today?

© 2003 Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam, used by permission.

About the Author

David Allen is president of The David Allen Company and has more than twenty years experience as a consultant and executive coach for such organizations as Microsoft, the Ford Foundation, L.L.Bean, and the World Bank. His work has been featured in Fast Company, Fortune, Atlantic Monthly, O, and many other publications.