40 Quotes About Overcoming Procrastination to Motivate You

A phone, a keyboard, white headphones and a to-do list on a white desk

Are you worried procrastination is keeping you from reaching your dreams? Do you go to bed every night feeling like a total failure, because once again you didn’t get almost anything done? Or are you just looking for quotes about overcoming procrastination because you’re not feeling it today?

I feel you and I assure you you’re not alone. Plenty of people struggle with procrastination. It goes without saying that it has a negative effect on your life though and there are plenty of reasons why you should stop procrastinating right away. In this article, I have collected 40 of the most inspiring and motivating quotes for overcoming procrastination.

If you want to turn a new leaf and become more productive, keep reading! And maybe write down your favorite quote to make sure you will stay motivated when things get tough.

What is the most effective way to overcome procrastination?

Procrastination is a common problem, and it’s not the easiest problem to fix. Plenty of students put things off till the last minute and a lot of employees do the same. It’s also extremely common for people to put off their own projects and goals simply because the projects seem too difficult or they don’t quite know what action they should take.

The best and most effective way to beat procrastination is to simply take the first step. Don’t give in to your fear of failure. Don’t worry about having it all figured out before you even start. Just take the first step. It’ll get easier from there.

Motivation is always a good thing and that’s why I suggest you pick a quote that really resonates with you and then write that quote somewhere where you can see it when you feel like giving up.

Overcoming procrastination quotes

Here are the best quotes about procrastinating that I know, I’m sure you’ll find them motivational!

1. “Procrastination has robbed us of too many opportunities.”
– Sarah Ban Breathnach

2. “The best way to get something done is to begin.”
– Anonymous

3. “Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing.”
– William Arthur Ward

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

5. “A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
– Karen Lamb

6. “The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.”
– Rita Emmett

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

8. “Often greater risk is involved in postponement than in making a wrong decision.”
– Harry A. Hopf

9. “We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.”
– Erica Jong

10. “Doing just a little bit during the time we have available puts you that much further ahead than if you took no action at all.”
– Byron Pulsifer

11. “Procrastination is the lazy cousin of fear. When we feel anxiety around an activity, we postpone it.”
– Noelle Hancock

12. “He who awaits much can expect little.”
– Gabriel Garcia Marquez

13. “Indecisiveness and procrastination are the chosen ways of life for most people. They follow the course of least resistance, which is to do nothing. This provides a security blanket of never being wrong, never making mistakes, never being disappointed, and never failing. But they will also never succeed.”
– David Peoples

14. “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

15. “Procrastination is, hands down, our favorite form of self-sabotage.”
– Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby

16. “Following-through is the only thing that separates dreamers from people that accomplish great things.”
– Gene Hayden

17. “Procrastination may not take up a lot of effort physically but without you knowing it, it takes over the mind.”
– Stephen Hall

18. “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

19. “Action will destroy your procrastination.”
– Og Mandino

20. “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

21. “Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.”
– Napoleon Hill

22. “If you choose to not deal with an issue, then you give up your right of control over the issue and it will select the path of least resistance.”
– Susan Del Gatto

23. “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

24. The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.
– Alexander Graham Bell

25. “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

26. “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

27. “Procrastination is the thief of time.”
– Edward Young

28. “Putting off an easy thing makes it hard, and putting off a hard one makes it impossible.”
– George H. Lorimer

29. “The greatest amount of wasted time is time not getting started.”
– Dawson Trotman

30. “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

31. “When there is a hill to climb, don’t think that waiting will make it smaller.”
– Anonymous

32. “By what right do I, who have wasted this day, make claims on tomorrow?”
– Alain Fournier

33. “If you put off everything till you’re sure of it, you’ll never get anything done.”
– Norman Vincent Peale

34. “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

35. “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

36. “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

37. “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

38. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”
– Zig Ziglar

39. “I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”
– Pearl S. Buck

40. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.”
– Jerry West

Conclusion

Do you want to stop procrastinating once and for all? Then head to these articles next:

How I Became Productive after Procrastinating for Years

5 Reasons You Should Stop Procrastinating Immediately

The 5 Best TED Talks About Productivity

30 Motivational Quotes for Hard Work

What do you think makes you put things off? Have you found anything that makes it easier for you to get to work? Share your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to know!

Make sure to share this article if you found it useful!

If you’re on a quest to become more productive and to create a new you, you might want to download my 15-page ebook that will help you get your life in order. It’s called ‘A Simple Guide to a Productive Life’ and it helps you to understand what you need to do to be productive and how to plan your life.

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2 Comments

  1. I needed to read this today and I’m definitely sticking some of those quotes on my wall to hopefully get me to be motivated to do work when I look up and read them back to myself lol

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