David Allen

Biography

“One of the world’s most influential thinkers” — Fast Company

David Allen is an author, consultant, international lecturer, Founder and Chairman of the David Allen Company. The David Allen Company is a productivity training and consulting company that provides services designed to increase performance, capacity and aligned execution. They count among their clients some of the world’s most prestigious corporations, including over 40% of Fortune 100 companies.

David Allen is widely recognized as the world’s leading authority on personal and organizational productivity. His 30 years of pioneering research, coaching and education of some of the world’s highest-performing professionals has earned him Forbes’ recognition as one of the “Top five executive coaches” in the United States, and as one of the “Top 100 thought leaders” by Leadership Magazine. Fast Company hailed David Allen “One of the world’s most influential thinkers” in the arena of personal productivity, for his outstanding programs and writing on time and stress management, the power of aligned focus and vision, and his ground-breaking methodologies in management and executive peak performance.

David Allen was named one of the top ten business leaders of 2014 by the American Management Association. GTD has an international following of adopters in corporate enterprises, institutions and entrepreneurs. It has given rise to a thriving GTD industry of websites, blogs and software applications. Internet searches bring up tens of millions of references. David Allen is a rarity in the Twitter world, as one of the few non-celebrities with over a million followers hanging on his informative wit and inspiration. PC Magazine noted him as one of the “Top One Hundred to Follow” on Twitter.

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Creating Order Out of Chaos—Staying Afloat in a World of Too Much to Do

The world is not coming to us in a neat little package–it comes from multiple levels from myriads of sources, with no rhyme nor reason as to how it appears to us. And it continues to accelerate, in ever greater volume. The solution is not in having more time, but having more space–more room to think creatively and strategically, and to be more present and appropriately engaged with what’s most meaningful to us. We need to be clear-headed in order to navigate and negotiate the changes and surprises that are coming toward us with increasing frequency.

There is a way to manage this, to surf on top of it, and to feel invigorated with the opportunities instead of overwhelmed with the challenges. There is a set of behaviors that allow us to stay clear and focused, amidst it all. But we are not born doing these practices, and they don’t show up by themselves. They are not difficult to implement, but they do require directing and training some “cognitive muscles”–ways to think about our “stuff”–and utilizing an effective and trusted personal system for staying in control.

David will explain the five critical steps for getting anything more in control and focused, with specific best practices and tools for each phase. He will share the best practices that he has tested and implemented in thousands of hours spent desk-side with some of the brightest and busiest people in the world. And, he will pass on many techniques that anyone can implement immediately, to gain greater stability, clarity, and, (yes!) time to engage with what really matters.

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