What drives you to wake up every day and go to work? For a lot ofpeople, reading inspirational productivity quotes is all it takes to get them motivated. These quotes on productivity can be powerful, especially, when you’re struggling to focus at work or on a project.
Ultimately, we all want to be successful and fulfill our goals. With commitment, passion, and hard work, we can get there. However, here’s the thing. You can’t maintain the same energy level all day or every day of the week.
Work pressure can take a toll on your body and mind, and suck up all your zeal and motivation. Some days you may just feel too lazy to do anything. Although there are productivity tools that can help you to keep track of your productivity level, what use are they when your motivation starts to drop?
Like Zig Ziglar, American author and motivational speaker once said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last long. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
Here are 60 of the most powerful motivational quotes for work success that you can always come back to whenever you feel your energy levels are at their lowest.
Motivational Quotes That Will Inspire You to Work
1. “Always deliver more than expected.” – Larry Page, Google co-founder, and Internet entrepreneur
2. “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey, American educator, author, and businessman
3. “Ordinary people think merely of spending time, great people think of using it.” Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
4. “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost, American poet
5. “Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” – Frank Kafka, writer
6. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on days when you feel good.” – Jerry West, former basketball player, American basketball executive
7. “Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” – Peter Drucker, Australian-born American author, educator, and management consultant
8. “Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year, and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!” – Tony Robbins, American author, philanthropist, and life coach
9. “Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.” – Peter Drucker, Australian-born American author, educator, and management consultant
10. “Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” – Napoleon Hill, American author
11. “There’s a tendency to mistake preparation for productivity. You can prepare all you want, but if you never roll the dice you’ll never be successful.” – Shia LaBeouf, American actor
12. “Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation.” – Brian Tracy, motivational speaker
13. “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” – Zig Ziglar, American Author, and motivational speaker
14. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” – Michael Jordan, American basketball player
15. “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale, author of the best-selling book, ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’
16. “Every day that I procrastinate, every day that I sit stagnant in fear, every day that I fail to better myself, someone else out there with the same goals and dreams as me is doing the exact opposite.” ― Noel DeJesus, thought leader on leadership development and organizational culture
17. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King, American author
18. “It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” – Nathan W. Morris, financial coach
19. “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” Saint Francis of Assisi, Catholic friar, philosopher, and preacher
20. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee, actor
21. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain, American writer
22. “Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them, and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can’t miss.” Lee Iacocca, Visionary Automaker
23. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Walt Disney, American entrepreneur
24. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs, American business magnate, and investor
25. “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer, Author
26. “It’s not knowing what to do; it’s doing what you know.” – Tony Robbins, American author, philanthropist, and life coach
27. “If there are nine rabbits on the ground, if you want to catch one, just focus on one.” – Jack Ma, Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist
28. “There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it. For if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard.” – C.J. Walker, American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist
29. “Focus on being productive instead of busy.” – Tim Ferriss, American podcaster, author, and entrepreneur
30. “There is no substitute for hard work.” – Thomas Edison, American inventor, and businessman
31. “I always had the uncomfortable feeling that if I wasn’t sitting in front of a computer typing, I was wasting my time – but I pushed myself to take a wider view of what was ‘productive.’ Time spent with my family and friends was never wasted.” – Gretchen Rubin, American author, blogger, and speaker
32. “Those who seize the day become seriously rich.” Richard Koch, British author, and investor
33. “What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50%.” – Susan Cain, American writer and lecturer
34. “Luck is not chance, it’s toil; Fortune’s expensive smile is earned.” – Emily Dickinson, American poet
35. “If you don’t have daily objectives, you qualify as a dreamer.” – Zig Ziglar, American author
36. “While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” – Henry C. Link, psychologist
37. “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator, and author
38. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb
39. “It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.” – Benjamin Franklin, Founding father of the United States
40. “There’s a way to do it better – find it.” – Thomas A. Edison, American inventor
41. “It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get up again.” – Vince Lombardi, American football coach.
42. “Our greatest glory is never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher, and poet
43. “If you commit to giving more time that you have to spend, you will constantly be running from debt collectors.” – Elizabeth Grace Saunders, time management expert
44. “The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” – Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host
45. “If you end your day feeling like you got nothing done, it’s because you weren’t working; you were busy, not productive.” Richie Norton, author
46. “Forget all the reasons why it won’t work and believe the one reason why it will.” – Ziad K. Abdelnour, businessman and investor
47. “Today is always the most productive day of your week.” Mark Hunter, Sales speaker, author
48. “Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.” – Thomas Carlyle, Historian
49. “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel, French fashion designer
50. “Simplicity boils down to two steps: identify the essential, eliminate the rest.” – Leo Babauta, author and blogger
51. “You can do anything, but not everything.” – David Allen, productivity consultant
52. “Why do anything unless it is going to be great.” – Peter Block, American author
53. “Time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which everything else in life depends.” – Brian Tracy, American Canadian motivational public speaker and self-development author
54. “Nothing is particularly hard when you divide it into small jobs.” – Henry Ford, American industrialist
55. “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The Sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell, inventor, scientist, and engineer
56. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali, American professional boxer
57. “Do the hard jobs first. Easy jobs will take care of themselves.” – Dale Carnegie, American writer
58. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford, American industrialist
59. “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest first.” Brian Tracy, American Canadian motivational public speaker and self-development author
60. “Don’t worry about breaks every 20 minutes ruining your focus on a task. Contrary to what I might have guessed, taking regular breaks from mental tasks actually improves your creativity and productivity. Skipping breaks, on the other hand, leads to stress and fatigue.” – Tom Rath, American consultant on employee engagement and author.
Final Thoughts…
This last motivational quote by Tom Rath proves the importance of using a productivity monitoring tool like Traqq to ensure that you take regular breaks while working on projects. You can set the timer to alert you after every 45 minutes or one hour so that you can take your 15-minute or 20-minute break to relax, take coffee or salad, and rejuvenate.
While you may feel like it’s a waste of time, your mind and body actually need it. Overworking affects your mental and physical wellbeing, which have a direct impact on your productivity. Keeping track of your projects while taking regular breaks is one of the fundamental keys to staying productivity at work.
