Quotes About Procrastination

The last thing in the world I want to do is write something in memory of Walter Mischel. I still can't quite accept that he's gone. And so I procrastinate, and with every day I don't put pen to paper, I reinforce his life's work with my reluctance.

You know, I used to say, when people say, 'How do you think about what to write about in the poems every week?' And I say, 'Well, I have to turn it in on Monday, so on Sunday nights I turn the shower to iambic pentameter and it sort of works out that way.'

I don't believe in writer's block. Think about it - when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn't it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer's block is having too much time on your hands.

My biggest excuse to others and myself was that I had writer's block, as if it was some kind of illness.

For me, the glory of my first 25 years as a writer was I could put things off as long as I wanted.

I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write.

A lazy man works twice as hard. My mother told that to me, and now I say it to my kids. If you're writing an essay, keep it in the lines and in the margins so you don't have to do it over.

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.

I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white, and it says, 'You may have fooled some of the people some of the time, but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent, and I'm not your mommy; I'm a white piece of paper. You wanna dance with me?' and I really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like.

For me, most of the anxiety and difficulty of writing takes place in the act of not writing. It's the procrastination, the thinking about writing that's difficult.

There are many fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is yours is the present.

The desire to start something at the "right" time is usually just a justification for delay. In almost every case, the best time to start is now.

Nothing is more exhausting than the task that's never started.

Nothing is more exhausting than the task that's never started, and strangely, starting is often far harder than continuing.

Just because we're busy doesn't mean we're being productive. Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.

Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.

I started to apply the "one-minute rule"; I didn't postpone any task that could be done in less than one minute.

Actually spending ten minutes clearing off one shelf is better than fantasizing about spending a weekend cleaning out the basement.

If I feel anxious about the fact that I haven't started, I become even more reluctant to start, which just makes me more anxious.

Something that can be done at any time is often done at no time. Do it now, or decide when you'll do it.

I didn't want to be like the novelist who spent so much time rewriting his first sentence that he never wrote his second.

Secret of Adulthood: Keeping up is easier than catching up.

These tasks weren't urgent (which was the reason they didn't get done), but because they weighed on my mind, they sapped my energy.

I suggested that he write from 11:00 to 1:00 every weekday. During that time, he was to write or do nothing. No email; no calls; no research; no clearing off a desk; no hanging out with Jack, my adorable, three-year-old, train-obsessed nephew. Write, or stare out the window. "Remember," I added, "working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination. You want to use your writing time for writing only. Nothing else, including no other kinds of work.