Time Management Quotes To Get You Unstuck
Time management is no easy deed. So, tricking your brain with time management quotes is the right thing to do when nothing else can motivate you.
Disclaimer: Quotes are motivational, but they’ll only get you so far. Hence, once you’ve set yourself in motion, it’s important to give the quotes a practical spin.
But don’t worry. In this article, I’ve included both quotes and practical tips.
Quotes on planning time
” Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. ”
– Abraham Lincoln
” If you give yourself 30 days to clean your house, it will take 30 days. If you give yourself 3 hours, it will take 3 hours. “
– Elon Musk
” Don’t make the same decision twice. Spend time and thought to make a solid decision the first time so that you don’t revisit the issue unnecessarily. ”
– Bill Gates
” Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning. ”
– Donald Rumsfeld
” We must use time as a tool, not as a couch. ”
– John F. Kennedy
” One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. “
– Tony Robbins
” Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ”
– Coco Chanel
” Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. ”
– Mother Teresa
” Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days. ”
– Zig Zigla
” He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”
– Victor Hugo
Quotes on measuring time
” What gets measured gets managed — even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation to do so.”
– Peter Drucker
” It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about? “
– Henry David Thoreau
” 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
” One always has time enough, if one will apply it well. ”
– Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
” Time is what we want most but what we use worst. ”
– William Penn
” Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time. ”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“We have become 20% more profitable because everyone is in the habit of time tracking.” – Richard Wingfield, Head Geek at Envision Design
Quotes about managing time
” The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot. ”
– Michael Altshuler
” When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. “
– Simon Fulleringer
” One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other. ”
– Chinese Proverb
” Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. ”
– Marthe Troly-Curtin
” Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. ”
– Steve Jobs
You might want to check out free time management templates to uplift your productivity.
Quotes on procrastination
” A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.”
– Charles Darwin
” Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today. ”
– Benjamin Franklin
” You may delay, but time will not. ”
– Benjamin Franklin
” Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week. ”
– Anonymous
” Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
– Stephen King
” Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. ”
– Mother Teresa
” Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today. ”
– Wayne Dyer
” If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made of. “
– Bruce Lee
” Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.”
– Thomas Edison
” Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. ”
– Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
” A year from now you will wish you had started today. ”
– Karen Lamb
” Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment. That is what’s real. ”
– Sara Paddison
Quotes for ditching multitasking
” You can do two things at once, but you can’t focus effectively on two things at once. ” – Gary Keller
” Be like a postage stamp, stick to one thing until you get there. ”
– Josh Billings
” To do two things at once is to do neither. ”
– Publius Syrus
” Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. ”
– Alexander Graham Bell
” One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks. “
– Malcolm S. Forbes
” Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment. That is what’s real. ”
– Sara Paddison
” A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.”
– Charles Darwin
” One can find time for everything if one is never in a hurry. ”
– Mikhail Bulgakov
Time management quotes for inspiration
” Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present. ”
– Bil Keane
” Better three hours too soon than a minute too late. ”
– William Shakespeare
” Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still. ”
– Chinese Proverb
” Time isn’t time main thing. It’s the only thing. ”
– Miles Davis
” You can’t make up for lost time. You can only do better in the future. ”
– Ashley Ormon
” Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time. ”
– Jim Rohn
” The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it. ”
– Shoppenhauer
” Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. ”
– Winston Churchill
” You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. ”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
” Half our time is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”
– Will Rogers
Tips to manage time better
Plan your time better
As you see, both contemporary and timeless geniuses praise the same concept: planning.
We all have only as many days for work as anyone else, but putting up a plan in advance makes a significant difference in our outcomes. Think twice, if necessary, when setting the groundwork, before capitalizing on work. This way, you’ll facilitate a smooth execution.
Your planning process doesn’t need another layer of complexity. Simply apply the following tips:
Set realistic goals: Too many of us start working without having clarity on where we’re heading and how we will be spending time, but we start with wishful thinking. There’s no point in setting yourself up for failure with unrealistic and very tight deadlines. We’re all affected by the optimism bias that makes us believe we’re able to do more than we actually can.
- Don’t overlook morning plans, as these add structure to your day and make your to-dos more digestible and clear;
If you’re looking to learn more, our content on best work prioritization tools and how to get organized at work when overwhelmed might help.
- Recommended read: Time management statistics
Measure your time
Peter Drucker’s quote on time management holds one of the most fundamental truths in any business: what gets tracked gets measured.
Regardless of what you’re measuring, it’s important to have an objective overview of business metrics as a starting point. Once measured, you’ll know what needs to be changed, improved, or continued that way. Thus, if your purpose is to manage time better, track it. Then, analyze it, identify time wasters jeopardizing your productivity, and optimize it.
“Using Timeular allows us to be intentional about how we plan and spend our time.”
Here are two ways of tracking time and measuring your time:
- Use manual timesheets: Start manually tracking time on paper or digitally in G-Sheets in timesheet templates. Once filled, analyze how you spent your time and connect the dots by comparing how you perceived your time expenditure and how you’re actually spending it.
Check out the billable hours timesheet templates that can help with invoicing customers. Disclaimer: Manually filling timesheets is quite tedious, and the outcome is not conclusive or objective, as it’s prone to errors.
- Use automatic time-tracking tools: Employ a hassle-free and intuitive time tracking app such as Timeular, as these have the capability to automatically capture work for you in the background. This is the best hack for tracking and measuring your most precious resource: time.
Such an app will objectively and easily reveal what apps you’re procrastinating on while gaining a sense of how to better take advantage of your twenty-four-hour days.
Manage time with simple strategies
Use easy and applicable strategies to regain control of your time and stop having the most busy life among anyone else:
- Use Time blocking: Block time to focus on your tasks and let anyone know you’re unavailable for interruption. Simply start with your priority tasks and schedule blocks of work for one task at a time. It’s recommended not to multitask during this time.
- Try Timeboxing: A method used by Scrum Masters in Agile project management does wonders for anyone. Set a time limit for a task or multiple tasks (ranging from minutes to weeks) to meet deadlines and reach productivity.
Learn how to overcome procrastination
If you’re procrastinating on a task right now, there’s no other way of saying this, but the bad news is that you need to start working on that thing you keep pushing to tomorrow. I get you. We at Timeular understand procrastination holistically, and we’re not calling it laziness.
You’re probably procrastinating because of many reasons:
Your perfectionism and your fear of not meeting certain high standards and stellar outputs (speaking of which, only you might have these expectations, not your managers or team);
Overwhelm caused by too many tasks that need to be removed from your plate or a complex task that feels daunting even to start;
Decision paralysis is caused by not knowing how to tackle important projects, which then leads to procrastination;
Poor time management skills cause you to underestimate the time a task will take or overestimate your own ability to complete it.
Just like all time management quotes suggest, starting work and not pushing it to tomorrow is the best action you could take.
If you need to explore more and combat procrastination, we wrote a comprehensive article called “How to stop procrastinating and go back on track.”
Learn how to combat multitasking
Contrary to popular belief, multitasking is counterproductive and considerably less effective than focusing on one task at a time. There’s plenty of research demonstrating this theory.
Multitasking often leads to errors and a decrease in cognitive effectiveness. Train yourself to focus on one task at a time and see it through to completion while minimizing distractions.
Learning what deep work is and practicing it can be a great way to escape multitasking and its daunting effects.
Track time spent on work automatically, measure it, and optimize it without a fuss.
Conclusion
The bad news is that time flies, and only if you’re sharpening your time management skills will you be able to make use of only a week’s value to a different extent. In line with what you’ve read about in this article, our conclusion couldn’t be different than the quote itself:
