It’s not an exaggeration to refer to time as the most important asset in life. Look around you. Most people complain that they never have enough time to do all they want. We could agree with them. However, what should we say about other people who are continually achieving everything they desire in life within the same 24-hour time frame?
Everyone wants to master time management, but it seems there are only a few people who understand the game. Thankfully, people known to be achievers gave us some words of wisdom that will help us use our time efficiently.
Here is our list of the 10 best quotes about time management:
10 Best Quotes About Time
1. “Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.” ― Anthony G. Oettinger
Oettinger may not had intended to use this as a quotation for time management. However, over time, people have associated it with using time efficiently. Besides, when you shoot an arrow, you can’t reverse it, and it will undoubtedly reach the point you targeted. It’s the same attitude we should have about time management.
Do you realize that when you spend your time on something, you can’t reverse it? That is, you have shot the time, and you’ll likely get the results you aimed at. So, don’t watch your time to fly like an arrow towards the wrong target. Use your time wisely to pursue your dreams. Just like an arrow, you will hit your goal if you start prioritizing the right things.
2. “Don’t waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.” ― Paulo Coelho
It’s sad but genuine. Nobody wants to hear your explanations behind yourdecisions. People reach conclusions in their minds and are always reluctant to change their opinion. Instead of proving a point, get on with activities that will make you live the kind of life you have always wanted.
3. “Time is the longest distance between two places.” ― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams’time management quote illustrates how reaching our goals will take some time. It won’thappen all of a sudden. It’s the same way you can’t travel from Canada to the US in a blinkof an eye. You’ll have to spend a couple of hours flying on a plane. Pursue your dreams, but also be patient to watch them become a reality.
4. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” ― Charles Darwin, The Life & Letters of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin’s quote may make manypeople guilty about how they handle time. How much of our time do we spend on the things that matter most? For many, taking out an hour for an unnecessary, unrewarding activity does not matter. We simply believe we could make up for it other days.
However, that’s a big mistake we make. Most successful people have a reputation for working hard to make every second count. NBA legend Kobe Bryant, said he hardly spent his time on any activity that didn’t make him a better athlete. Considering what Kobe said, and you’ll better grapple why Charles Darwin dared to make that statement.
5. “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” ― Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
This quote doesn’t have the word “time” in it, but it makes a lot of sense if you give it some thought. The actions we took in the past left their marks in our lives – right or wrong. It should make us more serious about the things we do with our time presently.
That said, we should spend our time on what matters if we hope to have a tomorrow filled with beautiful memories of the past.
6. “Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regrets mounting.” ― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
It’s a reality that time keeps tickingand we can’t stop it. Also, we age as time goes by—nobody gets younger. We want to become a fulfilled adults who will boldly teach younger ones to take charge of their lives while they are young. However, before we can do that we must master the art managing time.
As we grow older every day, our strengths and abilities decline. That’s why it’s important to take today as if it’s the last time we’ll ever have to make things right.
7. “Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.” ― Lao Tzu
Many people worldwide are conversant with the clause, “I don’t have time.”However,is that truly the case? Lao’s time management quote says otherwise. What we claim not to have time for is what doesn’t matter to us. There’s always enough time for the things we value.
8. “You may delay, but time will not.” ― Benjamin Franklin
This is another vital quote about time management, which suggests that time is always ticking. You may decide to use ample time to indulge in an activity that is more entertaining than rewarding. Unfortunately, it will play out in the quality of your life later.
9. “Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.” ― Stephen King, The Green Mile
Stephen King’s time management quote says it all. According to the famous writer, time dhave no regard for anyone. That is, time doesn’t go some and leave a bit of itself behind. Once it’s gone, you’ve bid it farewell. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back. We have to be careful to ensure we use our present time to do what we have to do.
10. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ― William Penn
Many people want more time to do essential tasks. Some even wish they can have more than 24 hours in a day. However, that’s never possible nobody will ever have more than a day to themselves. All of us gets 24 hours a day— no more no less. Unfortunately, only a few use those hours for activities that can genuinely change their lives. Being more careful with the tasks we strive to complete often determines our level of success and achievement in life.
Other Famous Time Management Quotes
Quotes About Waiting for the Perfect Time to Take Action
When it comes to making critical decisions, humans tend to feel agitated about the perfect timing. If you also think that way, what these great minds said about time will go a long way.
1. “For a while” is a phrase whose length can’t be measured. At least by the person who’s waiting.” – Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun.
2. “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” – Alan Watts.
3. “Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.” – Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.
4. “The future starts today, not tomorrow.” – Pope John Paul II.
5. “I give you this to take with you: Nothing remains as it was. If you know this, you can begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting.” – Judith Minty, Letters to My Daughters.
6. “You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” – Charles Buxton.
7. “Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.” – Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson.
8. “The best things are never arrived at in haste. God is in no hurry; His plans are never rushed.” – Michael Phillips.
9. “There is only now. And look! How rich we are in it.” – Vanna Bonta, Shades of the World.
Quotes About Making the Most of Time
Making the maximum use of time requires self-discipline and an understanding of time itself. If you’re struggling to prioritize the things that can truly change your life, these quotes will help you.
1. “Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.” – Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea.
2. “Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever.” – Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See.
3. “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” –M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth.
4. “The future came and went in the mildly discouraging way that futures do.” – Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.
5. “And there in lies the whole of man’s plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.” – Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
6. “The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden.
7. “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
8. “It’s worth making time to find the things that really stir your soul. That’s what makes you really feel alive. You have to say ‘no’ to other things you’re used to, and do it with all your heart.” – Roy T. Bennett.
9. “Never waste a minute thinking about people you don’t like.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower.
10. “Time spent with a cat is never wasted.” –Colette.
11. “There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.” – Coco Chanel.
12. “Lost Time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack.
13. “Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.” – Denis Waitley.
14. “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” – John Lubbock, The Use of Life.
15. “Clocks slay time… time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.” –William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury.
16. “Life is short. Focus on what really matters most. You have to change your priorities over time.” –Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart.
17. “The past is a ghost, the future a dream and all we ever have is now.” –Bill Cosby.
18. “Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed.” –Miranda July, No One Belongs Here More Than You.
19. “It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. … The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca, On the Shortness of Life.
20. “The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time.” –Dante Alighieri.
21. “Life is a funny thing. We only get so many years to live it, so we have to do everything we can to make sure those years are as full as they can be. We shouldn’t waste time on things that might happen someday, or maybe even never.” –Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us.
22. “The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, and the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.” –Arnold Bennett.
23. “Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?” That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.” –Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha.
Quotes About Focus, Planning, and Stopping Procrastination
Procrastination is the foundation for regrets in life. Many people avoid tackling their most important activities immediately because they think they have enough time to come back later. However, time waits for no one, and it is impossible to recover moments that have been lost.
With these wise quotes about procrastination, you’ll be inspired to start making every second in your life count. You’ll also learn how to focus on your tasks and stop making excuses to put them until later.
1. “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” –Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
2. “Where your attention goes, your time goes” –Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability.
3. “Time management is about life management.” –Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability.
4. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” –Michael Altshuler.
5. “Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.” – Carl Sandburg.
6. “If you don’t write when you don’t have time for it, you won’t write when you do have time for it.” –Katerina Stoykova Klemer.
7.“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.
8. “Procrastination is the foundation of all disasters.” –Pandora Poikilos, Excuse Me, My Brains Have Stepped Out.
9. “You can’t make up for lost time. You can only do better in the future.” –Ashley Ormon.
10. “You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don’t decide, others will decide for you.” –Tony Morgan.
11. “The problem with procrastination is it’s been around since the beginning of time it seems.” –Stephen Richards, The Secret of Getting Started: Strategies to Triumph over Procrastination.
12. “How often do you find yourself saying, “In a minute”, “I’ll get to it” or “Tomorrow’s good enough” and every other possible excuse in the book? Compare it with how often you decide it’s got to be done, so let’s get on and do it! That should tell you just how serious your procrastinating problem really is.” –Stephen Richards, The Secret of Getting Started: Strategies to Triumph over Procrastination.
13. “A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.” –Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Suffering of the World.
14. “To have more peace, as well as more time, start by letting go of the notion that time can be manipulated. Then, let go of the idea that it confines you. Instead, set out to use the time that is there for its true and best purpose – as the space within which you can live your life to the fullest.” –Michelle Passoff.
15. “Understand one thing – the time is the only actual currency you have. Even though it might be daunting for some people, it’s the ultimate truth.” –Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon – The Artist’s Guide to Liberation from Procrastination.
16. “Procrasdemon will steal the most valuable asset you have – time.” –Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon – The Artist’s Guide to Liberation from Procrastination.
17. “If you work without being distracted, you can do so much in one hour. Something that is not even achievable in a month, especially if you are not living with a Procrasdemon – a blood curdling time-wasting machine.” –Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon – The Artist’s Guide to Liberation from Procrastination.
18. “In this world, one of the biggest illusions that we live in is that we have unlimited time. With that mindset, we are uncontrolled to waste it as much as we can.” –Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon – The Artist’s Guide to Liberation from Procrastination.
19. “One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
20. “Procrasdemon has the power to actually make you waste your entire life doing purposeless things, and the worst part is that you won’t even be aware of this.” –Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon – The Artist’s Guide to Liberation from Procrastination.
21. “Stop sleeping, Get to work! You will have much time to sleep when you die.” –Michael Bassey Johnson.
22. “The time you profligate in procrastinating is the actual wealth you are wasting.” –Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon – The Artist’s Guide to Liberation from Procrastination.
23. “Maybe you will be able to rebuild everything you have lost. But time, my friend, is always ticking. And remember, no matter what you do, you will never be able to win it back again.” –Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon – The Artist’s Guide to Liberation from Procrastination.
24. “Have you heard the story of the man who wasted his life taking drugs and playing Sudoku, and when he realized that he could do something meaningful, he worked hard and even got his time back? There isn’t one because you can’t get your time back.” –Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon – The Artist’s Guide to Liberation from Procrastination.
Quotes About Multitasking
Doing many things at the same time may seem the best way of working. However, if you know better, you’ll prefer to face a task at a time and give it your best. We have compiled these quotes to help you become better at handling a job at a time.
1. “‘I told you to keep him safe, not cuddle.’ Alucard spread his hands behind him on the sheets. ‘I’m more than capable of multitasking’” –V.E. Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3)).
2. “You must avoid at all cost the idea that you can manage learning several skills at a time. You need to develop your powers of concentration, and understand that trying to multitask will be the death of the process.” –Robert Greene (Mastery).
3. “Multitasking has been found to increase the production of the stress hormone cortisol as well as the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline, which can overstimulate your brain and cause mental fog or scrambled thinking. Multitasking creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation. To make matters worse, the prefrontal cortex has a novelty bias, meaning that its attention can be easily hijacked by something new — the proverbial shiny objects” – Daniel J. Levitin (The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload).
4. “Even multitasking, that prized feat of modern-day office warriors, turns out to be a myth. Scientists now know that the brain is incapable of paying attention to two things at the same time. What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent.” –Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking).
5. “There’s a difference between driving and texting. When you’re driving your eyes have to be open and on the road watching the cars around you, road signs, and traffic lights. Along with your mind on the road and destination. Which means you are multitasking. When you’re texting, your eyes are on your cell phone screen and key pad. Along with your mind on what you’re going to say next. So how can you do both? Please stop!” – Jonathan Anthony Burkett (Neglected but Undefeated: The Life of a Boy Who Never Knew a Mother’s Love).
6. “To put it bluntly, research shows that we can’t multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously.” – John Medina (Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School).
7. “Multi-tasking people are always unstable. They have various interests. They never satisfy with their outcomes; they want more to go inside of anything. Perfection is not for these people; their desire tends to infinity.” – Sonal Takalkar.
Other Quotes About Time
Time plays a vital role in many other life facets too, including love, relationships, work, and more. These wise time quotes will give you a better perspective about different aspects of your existence.
1. “Punctuality is the thief of time” – Oscar Wilde.
2. “The strongest of all warriors are these two – Time and Patience.” – Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace.
3. “Fantasy, if it’s really convincing, can’t become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time.” – Walt Disney.
4. “It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.” – Vincent Van Gogh.
5. “I always felt like I was meant to have been born in another era, another time.” – Johnny Depp.
6. “There’s no advantage to hurrying through life.” -Shikamaru Nara.
7. “Time’s the thief of memory” – Stephen King, The Gunslinger.
8. “We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.” – Alan Wilson Watts.
9. “Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.” – BenjaminDisraeli.
10.“But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I’ll be in love with tomorrow.” – Gayle Forman, If I Stay.
11. “Odysseus inclines his head. ‘True. But fame is a strange thing. Some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another.’ He spread his broad hands. ‘We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory. Who knows?’ He smiles. ‘Perhaps one day even I will be famous. Perhaps more famous than you.’” – Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles.
12. “Time will explain.” – Jane Austen, Persuasion.
13. “…the sad part is, that I will probably end up loving you without you for much longer than I loved you when I knew you. Some people might find that strange. But the truth of it is that the amount of love you feel for someone and the impact they have on you as a person, is in no way relative to the amount of time you have known them.” – Ranata Suzuki.
What’s More?
Learning and adoptingthese quotes is the fundamental step to becoming better at managing your time. However, you’ll need a foolproof system and tool to handle your tasks efficiently. Using our time management software will enable you to become accountable for every minute of your life. That way, you will start to become more effective at staying on top of all your tasks.
