Do you have a habit of procrastinating? These procrastination quotes will motivate you to act right now.
Reading quotations instead of getting started on a task is, of course, a type of procrastination in and of itself, but after a few quotes, I’m typically ready to go to work.
To get you started, here are some of the best procrastination quotes, including a few that will make you think that a little delay isn’t necessarily a terrible thing.
100+ Fantastic Procrastination Quotes
One of the most human behaviors is procrastination. We’re all guilty of putting off critical tasks from time to time, and it appears that the more pressing the task, the better we are at avoiding it.
Sure, we end up with a spotlessly clean house and a perfectly empty email every time we have a major deadline, but the main work is delayed until the last minute and completed in a flurry of stress and caffeine.
However, we may gain control of procrastination by recognizing it as soon as possible and putting a stop to it. On the contrary, you’ll know you’ve got a poor habit when you’re conscious you’re putting something off yet still avoid it.
Here are 100+ procrastination quotes to get you in the right mindset for overcoming procrastination, because if procrastination has any enemies, it’s the drive to work more.
Getting an idea should be like sitting on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something.__E. L. Simpson
The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.___Alexander Graham Bell
Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing.___William Arthur Ward
Someday is not a day of the week. __ Janet Dailey
Putting off an easy thing makes it hard, and putting off a hard one makes it impossible.___George H. Lorimer
Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.___Victor Kiam
Action will destroy your procrastination.___Og Mandino
Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today.___Thomas Jefferson
Procrastination is the thief of time.__ Charles Dickens
Time wasted is existence; used is life.___Edward Young
Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today because if you enjoy it today, you can do it again tomorrow.___James A. Michener
Often greater risk is involved in postponement than in making a wrong decision.___Harry A. Hopf
Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait – The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count.___Gene Hayden
In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.___Theodore Roosevelt
If you have goals and procrastination you have nothing. If you have goals and you take action, you will have anything you want.___Thomas J. Vilord
The greatest amount of wasted time is time not getting started.___Dawson Trotman
A year from now you may wish you had started today.__ Karen Lamb
Procrastination may not take up a lot of effort physically but without you knowing it, it takes over the mind.___Stephen Hall
Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.___Napoleon Hill
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.___Abraham Lincoln
It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.___Leonardo da Vinci
Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.___Zig Ziglar
Procrastination is, hands down, our favorite form of self-sabotage.___Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby
Doing things at the last minute reminds us of the importance of doing things at the first minute.___Matshona Dhliwayo
Procrastination is like going to a fancy restaurant and filling up on bread and not leaving enough room for dinner.___Richie Norton
If you want to get ahead in life, I’ve found that perhaps the most useless word in the world is ‘tomorrow.’___José N. Harris
What may be done at any time will be done at no time. – Scottish Proverb
I remember reading somewhere about an organization called Procrastinators Anonymous. I think they had been in existence for some years but had never gotten around to having a meeting.___Unknown
You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. What mood is that? Last-minute panic.___Bill Watterson
If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.___Rita Mae Brown
One of these days is none of these days.___Unknown
Procrastination usually results in sorrowful regret. Today’s duties put off until tomorrow give us a double burden to bear; the best way is to do them in their proper time.___Ida Scott Taylor
How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never.___Martin Luther
Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!___Donald Gardner
Following-through is the only thing that separates dreamers from people that accomplish great things.___Gene Hayden
Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week. – Spanish Proverb
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.___William James
Neither a wise nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.___Dwight D. Eisenhower
It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the master work. Now, I’m beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I’m happy at least that I didn’t wait twenty years.___Paulo Coelho
If you put off everything till you’re sure of it, you’ll never get anything done.___Norman Vincent Peale
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. – Abraham Lincoln
Yesterday is a cancelled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is the only cash you have, so spend it wisely.___Kim Lyons
Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘someday I’ll’ philosophy.___Denis Waitley
Procrastination is a way for us to be satisfied with second-rate results; we can always tell ourselves we’d have done a better job if only we’d had more time. If you’re good at rationalizing, you can keep yourself feeling rather satisfied this way, but it’s a cheap happy. You’re whittling your expectations of yourself down lower and lower.___Richard O’Conner
He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.___Horace
Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment___Robert Benchley
We cannot put off living until we’re ready. Life is fired at us point blank.____Jose Ortega Y Gasset
A task left undone remains undone in two places — at the actual location of the task, and inside your head. Incomplete tasks in your head consume the energy of your attention as they gnaw at your conscience.____Brahma Kumaris
Whoever observes the wind will not sow; and whoever regards the clouds will not reap.___Ecclesiastes 11:4, NRSV
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
Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.___Christopher Parker
If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult problem… break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time.___Robert Collier
The habit of always putting off an experience until you can afford it, or until the time is right, or until you know how to do it is one of the greatest burglars of joy. Be deliberate, but once you’ve made up your mind – jump in.___Charles R. Swindoll
The really happy people are those who have broken the chains of procrastination, those who find satisfaction in doing the job at hand. They’re full of eagerness, zest, productivity. You can be, too.___Norman Vincent Peale
Don’t wait for someone to take you under their wing. Find a good wing and climb up underneath it.___Frank C. Bucaro
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.___Alexander Graham Bell
Often just by taking action, by doing something about the situation can relieve the stress and help correct the situation.___Catherine Pulsifer
To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.___Sydney Smith
Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand—and melting like a snowflake.___Sir Francis Bacon
He who is begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.___Horace
Begin doing what you want to do now. – Marie Beynon Ray
During a very busy life I have often been asked, ‘How did you manage to do it all?’ The answer is very simple. It is because I did everything promptly.___Richard Tangye
Begin to weave and God will give you the thread.___German Proverb
Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.___Napoleon Hill
The two rules of procrastination: 1) Do it today. 2) Tomorrow will be today tomorrow.___Unknown
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.___Jim Rohn
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.___Mark Twain
The best way to get something done is to begin.___Unknown
The shortest answer is doing. – Edward Herbert
He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.___Victor Hugo
Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.___Michael Landon
I’ll think of it tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.― Margaret Mitchell
Someday is not a day of the week.― Janet Dailey
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”― Abraham Lincoln
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.___Gen. George Patton
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.___Anne Frank
We have to stop procrastinating, pretending that we have forever to do what we want to do and be what we long to be.___Surya Das
The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.___Rita Emmett
I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do – the day after.― Oscar Wilde
Get started. Do something. Sign up for an aerobics class or go for a ride on your bicycle. Movement is the best remedy for procrastinating.___Anthony Herrera
Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.___Napoleon Bonaparte
Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.___Dale Carnegie
Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.___Peter Drucker
Do it, and then you will feel motivated to do it. – Zig Ziglar
The thing all writers do best is find ways to avoid writing.― Alan Dean Foster
You may delay, but time will not.― Benjamin Franklin
Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.― Charles Dickens
You can defeat procrastination all by yourself. You’re the one who started it and it’s also you who can stop it.___Samuel Andreas
One day or day one. You decide.___Unknown
So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don’t sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we’ve satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.___Lee Iacocca
In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.____Teddy Roosevelt
Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether.___Epictetus
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.___Lucius Annaeus Seneca
God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.― St. Augustine of Hippo
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.― Marthe Troly-Curtin
Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.__Mark Twain
The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.___Thomas Sowell
We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.___Erica Jong
I’m a big believer in putting things off, In fact, I even put off procrastinating.__Ella Varner
Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.___David Allen
There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks.__ David Lloyd George
A perfect method for adding drama to life is to wait until the deadline looms large.___Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby
We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going day in and day out. Concentrate on something useful. Having decided to achieve a task, achieve it at all costs.___Arnold Bennett
If you believe you can accomplish everything by “cramming” at the eleventh hour, by all means, don’t lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your ark once it has already started raining.___Max Brooks
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon – instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.___Dale Carnegie
Perhaps the most valuable result of an education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.___Thomas Huxley
How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.___Fred Brooks
Success is not obtained overnight. It comes in installments; you get a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow until the whole package is given out. The day you procrastinate, you lose that day’s success.___Israelmore Ayivor
You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.___Jerry West
You may delay, but time will not. ___Benjamin Franklin
A day can really slip by when you’re deliberately avoiding what you’re supposed to do.___Bill Watterson
Your Life Is Happening Right Now: Don’t let procrastination take over your life. Be brave and take risks. Your life is happening right now.― Roy T. Bennett
By what right do I, who have wasted this day, make claims on tomorrow?___Alain Fournier
A primary reason people don’t do new things is because they want to do them perfectly – first time. It’s completely irrational, impractical, not workable – and yet, it’s how most people run their lives. It’s called The Perfection Syndrome.___Peter McWilliams and John-Roger
Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.___Peter Drucker
Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.___Napoleon Bonaparte
Procrastination is the lazy cousin of fear. When we feel anxiety around an activity, we postpone it.___Noelle Hancock
Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait – The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count.___Robert Anthony
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.___Sydney Harris
We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.___Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.__Stephen King
In delay there lies no plenty. ___ William Shakespeare
The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.___Proverbs 20:4, ESV
Often greater risk is involved in postponement than in making a wrong decision.___Harry A. Hopf
We must be diligent today. To wait until tomorrow is too late. Death comes unexpectedly. How can we bargain with it?___Buddha
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.___William James
One of the greatest labor-saving inventions of today is tomorrow.___Vincent T. Foss
