Quotations about:
    procrastination


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Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 10 (1963)
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Added on 17-Feb-22 | Last updated 17-Feb-22
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procrastination is the
art of keeping
up with yesterday

Don Marquis (1878-1937) American journalist and humorist
archy and mehitabel, ch. 12 “certain maxims of archy” (1927)
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Added on 28-Jul-21 | Last updated 28-Jul-21
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There are so many things that we wish we had done yesterday, so few that we feel like doing today.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 10 (1966)
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Added on 27-May-21 | Last updated 10-Mar-22
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Because as writers we’ll do anything — organize the closet, clean the garage — to avoid writing.

Lynn Vincent (b. 1962) American author, journalist
In The New Yorker, “Lives of the Saints” (15 Oct 2012)
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Added on 26-Mar-21 | Last updated 26-Mar-21
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JERRY: Writing is also one of those things like … I’d rather fill in all the “o”s in the phone book. [Laughs]. You know what I mean? Anything is more fun than trying to write songs.

BOB: I’d rather be in the dentist’s chair. The blank page is the most frightening, most horrifying, the most toothy, snarling, god-awful thing I can imagine.

JERRY: Any excuse to not do it is good enough.

BOB: Man, look at those dishes mounting up. How can I work in this pigsty?

Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Interview of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir by Jon Sievert, Guitar Player Magazine (20 May 1993)
 
Added on 19-Mar-21 | Last updated 19-Mar-21
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By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American writer, epigramist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots, #1194
 
Added on 26-Feb-21 | Last updated 26-Feb-21
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Anyway, if you stop tellin’ people it’s all sorted out after they’re dead, they might try sorting it all out while they’re alive.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, “Saturday” [Adam] (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
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Added on 1-Dec-20 | Last updated 15-Dec-22
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Work is the greatest thing in the world — so we should save some of it for to-morrow.

Don Herold (1889-1966) American humorist, cartoonist, author
So Human, Epigraph (1924)
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Added on 12-Jun-20 | Last updated 12-Jun-20
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If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.

Rita Mae Brown (b. 1944) American author, playwright
Bingo (1988)
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The phrase can actually be found prior to Brown's formulation (1, 2), but Brown appears to have been the first to popularize it, and it entered into much wider use after her.

Frequent variant: "If not for the last minute ...."
 
Added on 18-Feb-20 | Last updated 18-Feb-20
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Man has no greater enemy than himself. I have acted contrary to my sentiments and inclination; throughout our whole lives we do what we never intended, and what we proposed to do, we leave undone.

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) Italian scholar and poet [a.k.a. Petrarch]
(Attributed)
    (Source)

Quoted in Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann, An Examination of the Advantages of Solitude and of Its Operations, ch. 5 (1783) [tr. F.S. (1808)].
 
Added on 28-Aug-17 | Last updated 28-Aug-17
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There are millions of ways to not be writing.

Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
“Rod Serling: The Facts of Life,” Interview with Linda Brevelle (4 Mar 1975)
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Added on 22-May-17 | Last updated 22-May-17
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If you have a good idea, get it out there. For every idea I’ve realized, I have ten I sat on for a decade till someone else did it first. Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.

Whedon - make - wist_info quote

Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
“Dollhouse’s Joss Whedon Answers Your Questions,” Hulu Blog (9 Mar 2009)
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Added on 17-Jun-16 | Last updated 17-Jun-16
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MARIAN: No, please, not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

HAROLD: Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.

Meredith Willson (1902-1984) American composer, songwriter, flutist, conductor, playwright
The Music Man (1957)
 
Added on 9-Oct-15 | Last updated 9-Oct-15
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One thing that’s good about procrastination is that you always have something planned for tomorrow.

G. B. Stern (1890-1973) British writer [Gladys Bronwyn Stern]
(Attributed)
 
Added on 27-Apr-15 | Last updated 27-Apr-15
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If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting it off.

No picture available
Olin Miller (fl. early 20th C) American humorist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 19-Feb-15 | Last updated 19-Feb-15
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The secret of my incredible energy and efficiency in getting work done is a simple one. I have based it very deliberately on a well-known psychological principle and have refined it so that it is now almost too refined. I shall have to begin coarsening it up again pretty soon. The psychological principle is this: anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.

Robert Benchley (1889-1945) American humorist
“How to Get Things Done,” Chicago Tribune (2 Feb 1930)
 
Added on 3-Sep-11 | Last updated 22-Apr-21
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At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty, chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same.
And why? Because he thinks himself immortal.
All men think all men mortal but themselves.

Edward Young (1683-1765) English poet
“The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality,” Part 1 “On Death, Life, and Immortality,” l. 418ff (1742–1745)
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Added on 29-Dec-07 | Last updated 26-Feb-21
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Procrastination and worry are the twin thieves that will try to rob you of your brilliance — but even the smallest action will drive them from your camp.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Gil Atkinson
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 28-Jul-21
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To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Eva Young
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 24-Nov-21
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