Today, I want to share with you some of my favorite famous quotes on procrastination. We all know that “just do it” advice and many of those time-management techniques cannot really break the nasty habit of procrastinating.
The root of this problem is more complex than just being lazy, not motivated or one does not know how to manage one’s time.
Some of the causes of procrastination are fear of failure, feeling overwhelmed, or even being a perfectionist.
And yes, procrastination can be hazardous to your health as well. When things are not done which they are supposed to be, then these undone tasks keep mentally harassing you. As a result you feel stressful, guilty and upset with yourself for getting them done in the first place. Grrr….
Anyway, let’s not procrastinate any longer. Let’s go through some of these famous quotations on procrastination.
“What may be done at any time will be done at no time.” – Scottish Proverb
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” – William James
“Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.” – Unknown
“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” – Don Marquis
“Procrastination is, hands down, our favorite form of self-sabotage.” – Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby
“If it weren’t for the last minute, I wouldn’t get anything done.” – Unknown
“We shall never have more time. We have, and always had, all the time there is.” – Unknown
“Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.” – Robert Benchley
“Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck
“It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.” – Earl of Chesterfield
“There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back.” – Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister
“One of the greatest labor-saving inventions of today is tomorrow.” – Vincent T. Foss
“Today is the tomorrow you talked about yesterday.” – Unknown
“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin
“The greatest thief this world has ever produced is procrastination, and he is still at large.” – Henry Wheelter Shaw
“Someday is not a day of the week.” – Unknown
“Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing so futile.” – Bertrand Russell
“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” – Eva Young
“Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.” – Quintillain
“Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all.” – Mignon McLaughlin
“Delay is the deadliest form of denial.” – C. Northcote Parkinson
“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.” – Victor Kiam
“Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” – Jean de La Bruyère
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” – Seneca
“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” – Olin Miller
“How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.” – Fred Brooks
“Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow.” – Gerald Vaughan
“Yesterday is a cancelled cheque. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is the only cash you have, so spend it wisely.” – Kim Lyons
“The best way to get something done is to begin.” – Unknown
“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.” – Spanish Proverb
“Postpone not a good action.” – Irish Proverb
“The time to begin most things is ten years ago.” – Mignon McLaughlin
“Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.” – George Claude Lorimer
“Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!” – Donald Gardner
“Tomorrow is the day when idlers work, and fools reform.”- Edward Young
“When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.” – William James.
“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” – Mark Twain
“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.” – Martin Luther
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb
“Don’t wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use ordinary situations.” – Charles Richter
“Procrastination is the thief of time.” – Edward Young
“The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.” – Dawson Trotman
“Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot fun until you get the bill.” – Christopher Parker
“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right”. – Napoleon Hill