Do you ever feel like there is never enough time in the day? Despite the fact that time is perhaps the most sought-after resource available for our use, most of us are dreadful at spending it wisely. Enjoy the following 70 time management quotes organized by topic.
What is the point of exercising proper time management without a clear plan built to take us where we want to go?
1. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
2. “Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.” – Winston Churchill
3. “Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.” - Donald Rumsfeld
4. “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
5. “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight Eisenhower
6. “I always say, don’t make plans, make options.” – Jennifer Aniston
7. ”If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
8. “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” – Henry David Thoreau
9. ”Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” – Alan Lakein
10. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
11. ”If you don’t know exactly where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?” – Steve Maraboli
12. “Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous.” – Mark Caine
13. “Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.” – Napoleon Hill
14. “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” – George Patton
15. “He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.” – Victor Hugo
Laser-like focus on the task at hand is a deadly weapon that will help you accomplish more work in less time.
16. “One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” – Tony Robbins
17. “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain
18. “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” – Oprah Winfrey
19. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar
20. ”To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.” – T.F. Hodge
21. “You cannot run at full throttle when applying your mindset to all of the different things running through your head. Focusing is the key to manifesting your desires.” – Stephen Richards
22. “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell
23. ”I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is.” – Donald Trump
24. “Always focus on the front windshield and not the review mirror.” – Colin Powell
25. “Temperamentally anxious people can have a hard time staying motivated, period, because their intense focus on their worries distracts them from their goals.” – Winifred Gallagher
26. “It’s about focusing on the fight and not the fright.” – Robin Roberts
27. “What do I mean by concentration? I mean focusing totally on the business at hand and commanding your body to do exactly what you want it to do.” – Arnold Palmer
28. “Concentration is the secret of strength.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
29. “Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.” – Helen Hanson
30. “Once taken off one task without completing the transaction, the mind continues to seek closure. Fight to stay focused on the task at hand.” – Jeff Davidson
Productive workers can produce higher output in less hours, resulting in more free time for much-needed fun and relaxation.
31. “The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.” – Tom Peters
32. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King
33. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee
34. “Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.” – Paul Gauguin
35. ”Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” - Warren Buffett
36. “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt
37. “In both children and adults, there can be a hard-to-deny link between a robust sense of hope and either work productivity or academic achievement.” – Jeffrey Kluger
38. “The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.” – Timothy Ferriss
39. “On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur.” – Evelyn Underhill
40. “The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.” – Thomas Sowell
41. “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” – David Allen
42. “The best time to start was last year. Failing that, today will do.” – Chris Guillebeau
43. “Remember that time is money.” – Benjamin Franklin
44. “There is nothing less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker
45. “Start from wherever you are and with whatever you’ve got.” – Jim Rohm
Cut useless activities and create systems to organize your workflow to avoid wasted time, money, and effort.
46. “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
47. “Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There`s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.” – Bill Gates
48. “Never waste any time you can spend sleeping.” – Frank Knight
49. “A particular shot or way of moving the ball can be a player’s personal signature, but efficiency of performance is what wins the game for the team.” – Pat Riley
50. “The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.” – Tony Robbins
51. “The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product.” – Peter Drucker
52. “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” – Bill Gates
53. “The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one’s day and every night to examine the results obtained.” - Alexis Carrel
54. “The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves.” – Robert Burton
55. “The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them.” – Benjamin Jowett
Let’s close with 20 quotes about time itself. Time is a mysterious, fleeting thing that has a way of escaping our grasp in the blink of an eye. Are you making the most of your time?
56. “How did it get so late so soon?” – Dr. Seuss
57. “Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin
58. “If time were to take on human form, would she be your taskmaster or freedom fighter?” – Richie Norton
59. “I like to do weird things in the shower, like drink my coffee, brush my teeth and drink a smoothie. It’s good time management.” – Michelle Williams
60. “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” - Marthe Troly-Curtin
61. “The essence of self-discipline is to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.” – Barry Werner
62. “We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.” – William Shakespeare
63. “You can have it all. Just not all at once.” – Oprah Winfrey
64. “Time is the longest distance between two places.” – Tennessee Williams
65. “Procrastination is the foundation of all disasters.” – Pandora Poikilos
66. “You can’t make up for lost time. You can only do better in the future.” – Ashley Ormon
67. “Time is what we want most, but what we spend worst.” – William Penn
68. “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Mother Teresa
69. “I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.” – Golda Meir
70. “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln
I hope these time management quotes provided you with a healthy dose of inspiration that will boost your productivity!
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Featured photo credit: Randomskkvia Flickr
Daniel Wallen is a certified personal trainer, life coach, and author of "The Busy Woman's Guide to Getting Fit, Fierce, and Fabulous." Click here to get your copy now. You're welcome to visit Daniel's blog or say hi on Facebook.
