Quotes About Procrastination and Why You Should Avoid It

Procrastination can be a killer. It’s an easy habit to form, and a hard one to break.

In extreme cases, the consequences of procrastinating can negatively affect your life. They can cause you to waste time, miss goals, ruin your career, lower your self-esteem, damage your reputation and even impact your physical health.

No one is immune, of course. Everybody has procrastinated at some point, but those who are able to fight through and limit procrastination are generally most successful.

Are you feeling the procrastination bug coming on today? Here are 20 inspiring quotes that will help you shake it off and get things done.

Presidential Thoughts

“Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today.” — Thomas Jefferson

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” — Abraham Lincoln

“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

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” — Abraham Lincoln

“This is my chance to do something. I have to seize the moment.” — Andrew Jackson

Literary Go-Getters

“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

“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

“Never put off ‘till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well.” — Mark Twain

“The scholar’s greatest weakness: calling procrastination research.” — Stephen King

“Hesitation of any kind is a sign of mental decay in the young, of physical weakness in the old.” — Oscar Wilde

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank

Athletes as Philosophers

“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” — Wayne Gretzky

“What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.” — Ralph Marston

Artists Who Get Things Done

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” — Pablo Picasso

“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” — Leonard da Vinci

Procrastination in Business

“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.” — David Allen

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” — Dale Carnegie

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” — Olin Miller

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” — Eva Young

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” — Michael Altshuler