David Allen (b. December 28, 1945) is a productivity consultant. He is the creator of the Getting Things Done time management method.

He grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana where he acted and won a state championship in debate. He went to college at New College, now New College of Florida, in Sarasota, Florida. His career path has included jobs as a magician, waiter, karate teacher, landscaper, vitamin distributor, glass-blowing lathe operator, travel agent, gas station manager, U-Haul dealer, moped salesman, restaurant cook^[1], personal growth trainer, and manager of a lawn service company and a travel agency. He is also an ordained minister^[2]. He claims to have had 35 professions before age 35.^[3] He began applying his perspective on productivity with businesses in the 1980s when he got a contract to design a program for executives and managers at Lockheed.

He is the founder of the David Allen Company, which is focused on productivity and executive coaching. The Getting Things Done method is part of his coaching efforts. He was also one of the founders of Actioneer, Inc.^[4], a company specializing in productivity tools for the Palm Pilot.

Allen has written two books, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, which describes his productivity program and Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life, a collection of newsletter articles he has written. He lives in Ojai, California with his fourth wife, Kathryn^[5].

References

1. ^ David Allen: The Master of Getting Things Done, July 1, 2007, by Paul Keegan Business 2.0 Magazine
2. ^ http://www.ndh.org/template.php3?ID=64,
3. ^ Cutting through the clutter to get things done, February 9, 2007, by David E. Williams CNN
4. ^ About Actioneer
5. ^ [1]

• Fallows, James. (July/August 2004) "Organize Your Life!." Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 294, No. 1, pp. 171-2.
• Allen, David (2003). Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life. New York: Viking Books. ISBN 0-670-03250-6. 
• Allen, David (2001). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-670-89924-0. 
• Beardsley, David. (April 1998) "Don't Manage Time, Manage Yourself." Fast Company. Issue 14, p. 64.
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3376663226661897311&q=david+allen

External links

• The David Allen Company website
• David Allen's Blog in the "Living Now" section of The Huffington Post
• David Allen's blog (dormant since 15 March 2006)
• Productive Talk podcast with David Allen
• David Allen - Brief bio and productivity improvement topics
• Wired Magazine profile, 9-25-2007

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