David Allen
David Allen (born December 28, 1945) is an American author and productivity consultant. He created the time management method Getting Things Done.
David Allen
Vera de Kok · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- David Allen
- Born
- 28 December 1945
- Education
- New College University of California, Berkeley
- Occupation
- Management consultant and author
- Spouse
- Kathryn
- Nationality
- United States.
- Fields
- workforce productivity, time management and counseling.
- Languages
- English.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q178369
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — David Allen • Born — 28 December 1945 • Education — New College University of California, Berkeley • Occupation — Management consultant and author • Spouse — Kathryn
Documentary record
David Allen, born on 28 December 1945, is documented in the authority records of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The birth is recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Careers
Careers
Allen grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana where he acted and won a state championship in debate. He attended New College (now New College of Florida) in Sarasota, Florida, and completed graduate work in American history at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduate school, Allen began using heroin and was briefly institutionalized. He is an ordained minister with the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. He claims to have had 35 professions before age 35. He began applying his perspective on productivity with businesses in the 1980s when he began consulting at Lockheed's human resources department.
Personal life
Personal life
Allen lived in Ojai, California with his fourth wife, Kathryn. In 2014, they moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
David Allen, creator of the Getting Things Done.
Robert Scoble
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1945
David Allen born.
Publications
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; Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life, a follow-up to his first book. In 2015, he also wrote a new updated version of Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity. In 2024, David Allen has co-authored Team: Getting Things Done with Others on how to work effectively in groups using GTD Principles.
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority file
- Getty Union List of Artist Names 500193003, David, Allen.
General reference · The Getty Research Institute
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q178369: David Allen
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article David Allen (author), revision 1372889595 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
References
Citations
References
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authority file
Getty Union List of Artist Names 500193003, David, Allen.The Getty Research Institute
Secondary witnessreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q178369: David AllenWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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