Procrastination is often viewed as the enemy of productivity, but it can also offer valuable insights into our work habits and personal motivations. This article curates a collection of inspiring and humorous quotes on procrastination, designed to provide both a moment of reflection and a motivational boost. Whether you're battling a deadline, looking for a spark of inspiration, or simply seeking some light-hearted affirmations, these quotes will resonate with everyone who's ever put off until tomorrow what they could have done today. Read on to find the perfect quotes to help you understand and combat procrastination, and perhaps even laugh about it along the way.
Famous Procrastination Quotes
"Procrastination is the thief of time." – Edward Young
"Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well." – Mark Twain
"Procrastination is opportunity's assassin." – Victor Kiam
"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday." – Don Marquis
"You may delay, but time will not." – Benjamin Franklin
"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing." – Eva Young
"Procrastination is the foundation of all disasters." – Pandora Poikilos
"Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried." – Author Unknown
"A year from now you may wish you had started today." – Karen Lamb
"Procrastination makes easy things hard, and hard things harder." – Mason Cooley
"Someday is not a day of the week." – Janet Dailey
"Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday." – Napoleon Hill
Motivational Procrastination Quotes
"The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action." – Alexander Graham Bell
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." – Walt Disney
"Do it today; it will save you the trouble of doing it tomorrow." – Author Unknown
"Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow." – Robert Kiyosaki
"Don’t wait. The time will never be just right." – Napoleon Hill
"A year from now you may wish you had started today." – Karen Lamb
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Peter Drucker
"Action is the foundational key to all success." – Pablo Picasso
"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking." – William Butler Yeats
"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." – Robert Collier
"You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." – Zig Ziglar
"The secret to getting ahead is getting started." – Mark Twain
Humorous Procrastination Quotes
"Procrastinate now, don’t put it off." – Ellen DeGeneres
"Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill." – Christopher Parker
"I’m not a procrastinator. I just prefer doing all my work in a deadline-induced panic." – Author Unknown
"Never put things off. You’ll only find them in your way again tomorrow." – Clifford Cohen
"My biggest talent is procrastination.” – Author Unknown
"If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done." – Rita Mae Brown
"You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. Unfortunately, my mood is procrastination." – Bill Watterson
"Housework is something you do that nobody notices until you don’t do it." – Author Unknown
"I'm very busy doing things I don’t need to do in order to avoid anything I’m actually supposed to be doing." – Author Unknown
"I’m a huge procrastinator. I mean huge. Master level." – Author Unknown
"I told myself I needed a break to procrastinate properly." – Author Unknown
"I work well under pressure… because that’s when I do most of my work." – Author Unknown
Procrastination Quotes for Work
"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task." – William James
"It's not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less." – Nathan W. Morris
"The best way to finish an unpleasant task is to get started." – Author Unknown
"Work is the greatest thing in the world, so we should always save some of it for tomorrow." – Don Herold
"The habit of always putting off an experience until you can afford it, or until the time is right, leads to one’s death bed." – Joseph Campbell
"Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you." – Orebela Gbenga
"The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself." – Rita Emmett
"How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’." – Martin Luther
"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right thing." – Peter Drucker
"Do it badly; do it slowly; do it fearfully; do it any way you have to, but do it." – Steve Chandler
"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." – Thomas Paine
"Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality." – Ralph Marston
Procrastination Quotes for Students
"The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up." – Author Unknown
"The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started." – Dawson Trotman
"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." – Martin Luther King Jr.
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." – Mark Twain
"Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect." – Zoey Sayward
"Good things come to those who hustle while they wait." – Thomas Edison
"Sometimes later becomes never. Do it now." – Author Unknown
"You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." – Wayne Gretzky
"Success doesn’t come to you; you go to it." – Marva Collins
"The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention." – John Burroughs
"The expert at anything was once a beginner." – Helen Hayes
"Time management is life management." – Robin Sharma
Procrastination Quotes to Overcome
"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." – Arthur Ashe
"You don’t have to be perfect to start, but you have to start to be perfect." – Zig Ziglar
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now." – Chinese Proverb
"Done is better than perfect." – Sheryl Sandberg
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." – Lao Tzu
"Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned." – Peter Marshall
"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done." – Bruce Lee
"Stop talking. Start doing." – Walt Disney
"A year from now you will wish you had started today." – Author Unknown
"The distance between your dreams and reality is called action." – Anonymous
"Don’t wait. Life goes faster than you think." – Author Unknown
"Do something today that your future self will thank you for." – Author Unknown
Productivity Quotes Against Procrastination
"The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything." – Lee Iacocca
"Focus on being productive instead of busy." – Tim Ferriss
"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." – Paul J. Meyer
"Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable." – Coco Chanel
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." – Steve Jobs
"Lost time is never found again." – Benjamin Franklin
"Make each day your masterpiece." – John Wooden
"You can do anything, but not everything." – David Allen
"The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." – Stephen Covey
"Ordinary people think merely of spending time, great people think of using it." – Arthur Schopenhauer
"Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life." – Steve Jobs
"Plans are nothing; planning is everything." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Inspirational Procrastination Quotes
"Dream big. Start small. Act now." – Robin Sharma
"What you do today can improve all your tomorrows." – Ralph Marston
"If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it." – Olin Miller
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." – C.S. Lewis
"The future depends on what you do today." – Mahatma Gandhi
"Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it." – George Halas
"Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward." – Hillary Clinton
"The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
"What is not started today is never finished tomorrow." – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
"Think big, start small, but act now." – Author Unknown
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin." – Mother Teresa
Procrastination Quotes for Entrepreneurs
"The most effective way to do it, is to do it." – Amelia Earhart
"Action is the foundational key to all success." – Pablo Picasso
"Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” – Anonymous
"A goal without a plan is just a wish." – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"An inch of action is worth a ton of theory." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it." – Cathy Hopkins
"The successful warrior is the average person, with laser-like focus." – Bruce Lee
"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing." – Eva Young
"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard." – Guy Kawasaki
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." – Lao Tzu
"If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves." – David Allen
"Your time is precious, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life." – Steve Jobs
Procrastination Quotes to Reflect Upon
"Life is too complicated not to be orderly." – Martha Stewart
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." – Jim Rohn
"The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings." – Thomas Sowell
"Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started." – David Allen
"Efficiency is doing better what is already being done." – Peter Drucker
"Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today." – Benjamin Franklin
"It always seems impossible until it’s done." – Nelson Mandela
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." – Theodore Roosevelt
"To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time." – Leonard Bernstein
"Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless." – Jamie Paolinetti
"The first step is you have to say that you can." – Will Smith
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." – Anatole France
Final words
Procrastination is a challenge that many face, yet it is also an opportunity to understand our own habits and motivations. Through inspiring quotes, we can find the motivation to take action, the humor to lighten the mood, and the wisdom to reflect on our choices. These carefully curated procrastination quotes serve as a reminder that while delaying tasks may seem easier in the moment, the satisfaction of completing our goals and dreams is far more rewarding. Embrace these words of wisdom to overcome procrastination and transform it into a catalyst for productivity and success. Reflect, act, and repeat, and you'll find procrastination becoming a thing of the past.
