David Allen is an American productivity consultant and author, best known for creating Getting Things Done, or GTD, a method for managing work and commitments without stress. His 2001 book Getting Things Done has sold widely around the world and was revised in 2015, and his company teaches the method to individuals and organisations.
Brian Rose has interviewed Allen twice on London Real, in 2015 and 2019. They talked about the GTD method, why your mind is for having ideas rather than holding them, reducing stress, and his own unusual early life, from living in Zurich as a teenager to studying history at Berkeley.
Each interview is listed below with a short summary.
Mastering Productivity By Getting Things Done (2015). His first interview and the clearest introduction to the GTD method. Follow it with How To Get Things Done (2019).
Short clips: Success Secrets (2015) and Success Secrets (2019).
Allen’s best-known line is that your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. He argues that trying to remember everything creates stress, and that writing it down frees your attention.
The GTD method asks you to capture every task and idea, decide what each one means and what the next action is, and keep it in a system you trust and review regularly. Then you can do the work rather than worry about it.
Allen says GTD is as useful for artists and anyone struggling to finish things as it is for business leaders. The aim is a sense of control and space to do what you really want to do.
On London Real he talked about the varied life behind the method, including time in Zurich as a teenager, studying history, a black belt in karate and an interest in painting and bonsai.
David Allen is an American productivity consultant and author who created the Getting Things Done method. His 2001 book Getting Things Done is one of the best-known books on personal productivity.
In two interviews in 2015 and 2019, Allen explained the Getting Things Done method, how to reduce stress by getting tasks out of your head, and how his own varied life shaped his thinking.
Start with Mastering Productivity By Getting Things Done from 2015, the clearest introduction to his method. Then watch How To Get Things Done from 2019.
Twice, in May 2015 and April 2019. Each interview also has a short Success Secrets clip.
Getting Things Done, or GTD, is a productivity method based on five steps: capture everything that has your attention, clarify what it means, organise it, reflect on it regularly and then engage by doing the next action.
His most quoted line is that your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. It sums up the idea behind GTD: write things down in a trusted system so your mind is free to think.
Official site: gettingthingsdone.com
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