David Allen is a self-help author, lecturer and founder and president of the David Allen Company, a management consulting, coaching and training company. Born in 1945, he works in the fields of business, getting things done, productivity and office life, and is known for developing a practical system for improving personal and organisational productivity.

Work and career

Allen develops and delivers productivity improvement programmes for professionals and organisations, including many large corporations and United States government agencies. Over two decades, he works with hundreds of organisations worldwide and focuses on interactive and organisational productivity, alignment issues, executive workflow coaching, seminars and consulting.

Writing

He writes two books: Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity, an international bestseller, and Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life. He also publishes essays and articles in professional journals and periodicals on personal effectiveness.

Public speaking and publications

Allen is a keynote speaker on time and stress management, individual and team productivity, and high-performance work practices. His newsletter, David Allen's Productivity Principles, features more than 150 original essays and has a global readership of more than 120,000 people.