Motivational Speaker – David Allen – US

David Allen (born December 28, 1945) is a productivity consultant who is best known as the creator of the time management method known as “Getting Things Done“.

He grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana where he acted and won a state championship in debate. He went to college at New College, nowNew College of Florida, in Sarasota, Florida, and did graduate work in American history at University of California, Berkeley.^[2] After graduate school, he began using heroin and was briefly institutionalized.^[3] 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, manager of a lawn service company, and manager of a travel agency. He is an ordained minister with the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness.^[4][5] He claims to have had 35 professions before age 35.^[6] He began applying his perspective on productivity with businesses in the 1980s when he was awarded 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, action management and executive coaching. His “Getting Things Done” method is part of his coaching efforts. He was also one of the founders of Actioneer, Inc., a company specializing in productivity tools for the Palm Pilot.

David Allen Company presenters, not Allen, regularly gives one-day public seminars on Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, which cost approximately $595.^{[citation needed]}Allen himself gives public seminars only occasionally, which cost approximately $995^{[citation needed]}. In 2007, such a seminar from Allen himself went for $595 per person or $20,000 per corporate training session.^[1]

Allen has written three books, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, which describes his productivity program, Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life, a collection of newsletter articles he has written, and Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life, a follow-up to his first book. He lives in Ojai, California with his fourth wife, Kathryn,^[1] whom he describes as his “extraordinary partner in work and life” in the dedication of Getting Things Done.

Bibliography[edit source | editbeta]

• Allen, David (2001). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 978-0-14-200028-1.
• Allen, David (2003). Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life. New York: Viking Books. ISBN 978-0-14-303454-4.
• Allen, David (2008). Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life. New York: Viking Adult. ISBN 978-0-67-001995-3.