David Allen is an American productivity consultant and coach. He is best known as the author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity, first published in 2001. Although he has written two further books, Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life (2003) and Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life (2008), they largely expand on the theories of his first bestselling self-help book. Allen has built a successful business empire around the GTD methodology, providing certified courses, workshops, and seminars by trained GTD coaches. His website also offers GTD video and podcast content.

Allen’s route to becoming a productivity expert was an unconventional one. Born in Louisiana in 1945, he won a state championship in debate as a child. Developing an interest in Zen Buddhism as a teenager, he studied philosophy at college and began postgraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. However, Allen abandoned his studies when he started using heroin and was briefly committed to a psychiatric hospital in 1971. On his recovery, Allen took various jobs, including being an instructor in karate (he is a blackbelt in the art). Allen’s interest in spirituality also led him to join the ministry of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness.