PROCRASTINATION QUOTES III
quotations about procrastination
For two weeks I have been putting off something of importance that should be done. This is not the exception that proves the rule. It is the rule itself, and I am determined that this rule must be changed. Why didn't I set myself the task yesterday and do it? It isn't a hard thing to do once I start it. It is only the starting that troubles and this has been a trouble of mine for so many years that I am trying to analyze my own failure in the hope that a correct analysis may help somebody else who is troubled in like manner. What I should have done yesterday was easily the most important thing that confronted me and it is just as important today. Therefore, I cannot offer the excuse that something more important intervened. Such an excuse would be unworthy of my desire to be honest with myself. The task was not one that should have been set off for a more opportune time. Yesterday was the ideal time. But I did something else. The fact that I can't find nearly as much fault with myself today for my neglect of yesterday as I would have found with myself a few years ago for a similar neglect is the reason why I am analyzing my condition. I am in danger. I must settle once and for all, upon the reason and make it impossible for similar neglects to occur in the future.
WILLIAM HENRY MCMASTERS
"On Why Not Yesterday?", Originality and Other Essays
Procrastination has been called a thief, the thief of time; I wish it were no worse than a thief. It is a murderer; and that which it kills is not time merely, but the immortal soul.
WILLIAM NEVINS
Earnest Appeals
We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.
ERICA JONG
Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life
Crunch time. Cramming. Waiting until the very last minute. These words conjure the exhilarating adrenaline rush that I, for one, am prone to humblebrag about, like I do about being overly busy or super-tired. It sounds better to say that procrastinating allows me to do my best work than to admit I have poor time management and mediocre self-discipline. But what I have long thought to be a weakness may actually be a secret weapon for creative success. As it turns out, the time we spend not completing our to-dos may be the thing that gives us the boost of divergent thought we need to create better solutions.
LINDSAY SCHLEGEL
"Is Procrastinating Your Secret Weapon For Success?", Verily, June 6, 2016
Someday is not a day of the week.
PHIL MCGRAW
The 20/20 Diet: Turn Your Weight Loss Vision Into Reality
Procrastination is a ring on every man's finger.
CAIUS VIBIUS TREBONIANUS GALLUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill.
CHRISTOPHER PARKER
attributed, The Psychology of Procrastination
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
JEROME K. JEROME
Three Men in a Boat
The strangest thing about procrastination is that the only thing standing between you and the joy of completing your work is ... you.
MELISSA RAYWORTH
"Apps to keep you on task", Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, June 6, 2016
By the streets of "by and by" one arrives at the house of "never."
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment.
NASSIM N. TALEB
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
Habitual procrastinators will readily testify to all the lost opportunities, missed deadlines, failed relationships and even monetary losses incurred just because of one nasty habit of putting things off until it is often too late.
STEPHEN RICHARDS
The Secret of Getting Started
The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
W. M. LEWIS
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.
GEORGE HORACE LORIMER
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
Time is a created thing. To say "I don't have time" is to say "I don't want to."
LAO TZU
attributed, O Magazine, January 2007
When faced with two equally tough choices, most people choose the third choice: to not choose.
JAROD KINTZ
This Book Title is Invisible
Some persons appear to have been born half an hour too late, and chase that half hour through life, and are finally distanced in the race; for by procrastinating, they are always behind hand in everything.
L. C. JUDSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
The procrastinator is not only indolent and weak, but commonly false too.
LAVATER
attributed, Day's Collacon
How dangerous to procrastinate those momentous reformations which conscience is solemnly preaching to the heart.
JOHN FOSTER
The Life and Thoughts of John Foster
If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing