Are you looking for the best productivity quotes of all time? Then you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, you’ll discover a collection of 200+ of the most inspirational productivity quotes to inspire and motivate you to achieve more in your business and life (be sure to check out the FAQ section for some bonus content as well).
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Table of Contents
Inspirational productivity quotes
Here is my collection of inspirational productivity quotes from notable personalities and proverbs.
“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today.” – Nolan Bushnell
“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” – Peter Drucker
“Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.” – Margaret Bonnano
“Life is too complicated not to be orderly.” – Martha Stewart
“The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do.” – Dennis Waitley
“To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
“Few ever lived to old age, and fewer still ever became distinguished, who were not in the habit of early rising.” – John Todd
“I would have it inscribed on the curtains of your bed and the walls of your chamber: “If you do not rise early you can make progress in nothing.” – William Pitt Chatham
“It is best to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.” – Aristotle
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” – David Allen
“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker
“I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.” – Donal Trump
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee
“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
“For all of its faults, it gives most hardworking people a chance to improve themselves economically, even as the deck is stacked in favor of the privileged few. Here are the choices most of us face in such a system: Get bitter or get busy.” – Bill O’ Reilly
“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
“Why do anything unless it is going to be great?” – Peter Block
“It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau
“Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel
“Ordinary people think merely of spending time, great people think of using it.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” – Peter Drucker
“Focus on being productive instead of busy.” – Tim Ferriss
“Early rising not only gives us more life in the same number of years, but adds, likewise, to their number; and not only enables us to enjoy more of existence in the same time, but increases also the measure.” – Caleb C. Colton
“The cynic says, “One man can’t do anything”. I say, “Only one man can do anything.” – John W. Gardner
“He that rises late must trot all day.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.” – John Randolph
“Efficiency is doing better than what is already being done.” – Peter Drucker
“I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.” – Oprah Winfrey
“You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It’s called perseverance.” – Lee Lacocca
“Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.” – Benjamin Franklin
“We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things.” – Herb Kelleher
“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
“Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation.” – Brian Tracy
“Think of many things; do one.” – Portuguese proverb
“Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin
“In a society that judges self-worth on productivity, it’s no wonder we fall prey to the misconception that the more we do, the more we’re worth.” – Ellen Sue Stern
“The desire of knowledge, like the thirst for riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.” – Laurence Sterne
“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Long-range planning works best in the short term.” – Doug Evelyn
“Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” – Douglas R. Hofstadter
“You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.” – Tony Robbins
“If there are nine rabbits on the ground, if you want to catch one, just focus on one.” – Jack Ma
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” – Vince Lombardi
“When one has much to put into them, a day has a hundred pockets.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools.. but they must be kept to a minimum.” – Jeffrey Immelt
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
“Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.” – Caterina Fake
“Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” – Peter Drucker
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches.” – Napoleon Hill
“Whoever has tasted the breath of morning knows that the most invigorating and most delightful hours of the day are commonly spent in bed; though it is the evident intention of nature that we should enjoy and profit by them.” – Robert Southey
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
“Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn.” – Delmore Schwartz
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
“There is no substitute for hard work.” – Thomas Edison
“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.” – David Allen
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.” – Thomas Watson
“Never mistake motion for action.” – Ernest Hemingway
“The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm.” – Thomas J. Watson
“If you are interested in balancing work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable.” – Donald Trump
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Don’t confuse the urgent with the important.” – Preston Ni
“Both good and bad days should end with productivity. Your mood affairs should never influence your work.” – Greg Evans
“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” – Carlos Castaneda
“To the degree we’re not living our dreams; our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves.” – Peter McWilliams
“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.” – Andrew Grove
“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” – Bruce Lee
“You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.” – Jim Stovall
“While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” – Henry Link
“A lot of the best work I’ve ever done started out as something completely different because I gave myself permission to have space around my time and expectations.” – Merlin Mann
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” – Voltaire
“The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.” – Thomas Sowell
“No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.” – Warren Buffett
“If you commit to giving more time than you have to spend, you will constantly be running from time debt collectors.” – Elizabeth Grace Saunders
“The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.” – Tom Peters
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell
“The only way around is through.” – Robert Frost
“Being lazy does not mean that you do not create. In fact, lying around doing nothing is an important, nay crucial, part of the creative process. It is a meaningless bustle that actually gets in the way of productivity. All we are really saying is, give peace a chance.” – Tom Hodgkinson
“The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.” – Timothy Ferriss
“Improved productivity means less human sweat, not more.” – Henry Ford
“The noblest search is the search for excellence.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
“You don’t actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it ‘done’.” – David Allen
“Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that’s more productive.” – Donald Trump
“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
“You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.” – Les Brown
“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!” – Henry Ford
“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” – Warren Buffett
“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.” – Charles Richards
“Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you.” – Henry J. Kaiser
“No great achiever – even those who made it seem easy – ever succeeded without hard work.” – Jonathan Sacks
“Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.” – Thomas Carlyle
“Greatness is sifted through the grind, therefore don’t despise the hard work now for surely it will be worth it in the end.” – Sanjo Jendayi
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Picasso
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King
“Light tomorrow with today.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart
“Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz
“Build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” – Farrah Gray
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
“Everyday 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
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau
“A worker without genius is better than a genius who won’t work.” – Leopold Auer
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” – Colin Powell
“Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.” – Helena Rubinstein
“It’s not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.” – Tony Robbins
“Someday is not a day of the week.” – Janet Dailey
“Great acts are made up of small deeds.” – Lao Tzu
“I have learned that real angels don’t have gossamer white robes and Cherubic skin, they have calloused hands and smell of the days’ sweat.” – Richard Evans
“My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.” – Indira Gandhi
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb
Productivity Quotes From Famous Personalities
These awesome quotes from famous personalities can teach you a lot about productivity.
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis Of Assisi
“All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.” – Plato
“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
“People often remark that I’m pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it.” – Frank Sinatra
“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.” – Oscar Wilde
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali
“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.” – John F. Kennedy
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” – Mark Twain
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar
“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci
“Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” – John D. Rockefeller
“Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.” – John Locke
“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.” – Sigmund Freud
“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” – Oprah Winfrey
“Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; It is its own reward. Everything else is in god’s hands.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein
“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” – Zig Ziglar
“Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” – Michael Jordan
“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
“How poor are they that have no patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” – William Shakespeare
“Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.” – Warren Buffett
“Gentleness doesn’t get work done unless you happen to be a hen laying eggs.” – Coco Chanel
“Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.” – Bertrand Russell
“He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.” – Leonardo da Vinci
“Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” – Zig Ziglar
“Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Discussion is an exchange of knowledge, an argument, an exchange of ignorance.” – Robert Quillen
“Luck is not chance, it’s toil; Fortune’s expensive smile is earned.” – Emily Dickinson
“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.” – Stephen hawking
“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” – Pablo Picasso
“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.” – Ronald Reagan
“When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.” – Warren Buffett
“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. I hope we’ve learned something from yesterday.” – John Wayne
Productivity quotes about priorities
Here are some of the best productivity quotes about priorities from some of the most successful people in the world.
“A wind that blows aimlessly is no good to anyone.” – Rick Riordan
“Do the hard jobs first. Easy jobs will take care of themselves.” – Dale Carnegie
“Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own.” – Bruce Lee
“Create with the heart; build with the mind.” – Criss Jami
“Position yourself to succeed by doing the other things in your life that rejuvenate you. Exhaustion affects your quality and productivity.” – Jeff VanderMeer
“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” – Warren Buffett
“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” – Franz Kafka
“Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.” – Leo Babauta
“Sometimes the biggest gain in productive energy will come from cleaning the cobwebs, dealing with old business, and clearing the desks—cutting loose debris that’s impeding forward motion.” – David Allen
“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.” – Alan Watts
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” – Nathan W. Morris
“Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden
“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” – Benjamin Franklin
“My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.” – Francine Jay
“The best things in life make you sweaty.” – Edgar Allan Poe
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey
“The purpose of life is not to be happy—but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.” – Leo Rosten
“The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.” – Benjamin E. Mays
“The true price of anything you do is the amount of time you exchange for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
“There is no waste in the world that equals the waste from needless, ill-directed, and ineffective motions.” – Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr.
“Writing crystallizes thought and thought produces action.” – Paul J. Meyer
Motivational productivity quotes
Here are of the best motivational productivity quotes to help you achieve greatness in your business and life.
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
“You can fool everyone else, but you can’t fool your own mind.” – David Allen
“If you have time to whine then you have time to find a solution.” – Dee Dee Artner
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale
“Productivity growth, however it occurs, has a disruptive side to it. In the short term, most things that contribute to productivity growth are very painful.” – Janet Yellen
“Starve your distraction and feed your focus.” – Unknown
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford
“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” – Jean-Baptiste Poqeulin (Moliere)
“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on days when you feel good.” – Jerry West
“When someone tells me “no,” it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.”” – Karen E. Quinones Miller
“The individual who says it is not possible should move out of the way of those doing it.” – Tricia Cunningham
Best productivity quotes about planning
Below you’ll find my collection of the best productivity quotes about planning to help you do your best in your business as a creator and entrepreneur.
“Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.” – Colin Powell
“To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.” – Corita Kent
“Good well-being promotes good productivity.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” – Proverbs 29:18
“You don’t need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment.” – Seth Godin
“Productivity is the deliberate, strategic investment of your time, talent, intelligence, energy, resources, and opportunities in a manner calculated to move you measurably closer to meaningful goals.” – Dan S. Kennedy
“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” – George Lorimer
“Your daily choices and actions should be rational and productive.” – Sunday Adelaja
FAQs | Top productivity quotes
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about productivity quotes.
What is productivity?
The term productivity refers to the measure of an individual, team, or organization’s efficiency in producing goods or services. It is often quantified by the amount of output generated per unit of input, such as labor, time, or resources.
What are productivity quotes?
Productivity quotes are inspirational or motivational statements that aim to encourage individuals to be more efficient, focused, and effective in their work or daily life. They often serve as reminders to stay motivated, overcome challenges, and strive for success.
Why productivity quotes?
Productivity quotes are commonly used to inspire and motivate individuals to enhance their productivity levels. They serve as a reminder of the importance of staying focused, managing time effectively, and maintaining a positive mindset.
By reading or reflecting on productivity quotes, people can often find encouragement, gain new perspectives, and find inspiration to overcome challenges and accomplish their goals.
Why is productivity important?
Productivity is important because it helps individuals and businesses accomplish more in less time, leading to increased efficiency, profitability, and overall success.
What is a good productivity quote?
A good productivity quote is by Peter Drucker:
“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”
This quote highlights the importance of not just completing tasks efficiently, but also ensuring that you’re focusing on the right tasks for achieving your goals.
What are some top productivity quotes?
Her are some top productivity quotes to inspire you:
Success is not the key to productivity. Productivity is the key to success. – Unknown
Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort. – Paul J. Meyer
The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity. – Tom Peters
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. – Steve Jobs
Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before. In this article, you’ll discover a collection of 200+ of the most inspirational blogging quotes you need to know to inspire you to start your blog and make money blogging – Franz Kafka
Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations. – Jean Paul Richter
Focus on being productive instead of being busy. – Tim Ferriss
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill
Productivity is the deliberate, strategic investment of your time, talent, intelligence, energy, resources, and opportunities in a manner calculated to move you measurably closer to meaningful goals. – Dan S. Kennedy
The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. – Stephen Covey
Final thoughts on the best productivity quotes
I hope you enjoyed this ultimate collection of the best inspirational productivity quotes quotes to help you achieve success in your business and life.
“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

Peter Drucker
Father of Modern Management
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