Being busy doesn’t mean you’re being productive. Productivity means working actively towards your goals in an efficient manner.
And what better way to delve into being productive at work than through the eyes of those who are already doing it. Productivity quotes from highly successful people can often provide motivation and help you achieve measurable success.
By surrounding yourself with successful people and implementing their approaches to work, you’ll invariably learn to work more efficiently and become more productive. And so, to help get you started, here are 40 kick-ass productivity quotes for work from the world’s most successful people.
1. “Focus on being productive instead of busy.”
Tim Ferriss
2. “There is no substitute for hard work.”
Thomas Edison
3. “Multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50%.”
Susan Cain
4. “Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.”
Leo Babauta
5. “Gentleness doesn’t get work done unless you happen to be a hen laying eggs.”
Coco Chanel
6. “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
Paul J. Meyer
7. “My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.”
Francine Jay
8. “Always deliver more than expected.”
Larry Page
9. “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.”
Peter Drucker
10. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Albert Einstein
11. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”
Bruce Lee
12. “My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day. I never do anything with a feeling of, Oh God, I’ve got to do this today.”
Richard Branson
13. “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”
Barack Obama
14. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Walt Disney
15. “Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.”
Mahatma Gandhi
16. “Tomorrow becomes never. No matter how small the task, take the first step now!”
Tim Ferriss
17. “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.”
Brian Tracy
18. “You’ve gotta keep control of your time, and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.”
Warren Buffett
19. “Don’t count the days. Make the days count.”
Muhammad Ali
20. “It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.”
Aristotle
21. “Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.”
Pablo Picasso
22. “In life, people tend to wait for good things to come to them. And by waiting, they miss out.”
Neil Strauss
23. “People can be really smart or have skills that are directly applicable, but if they don’t really believe in it, then they are not going to really work hard.”
Mark Zuckerberg
24. “Worrying gets you nowhere. If you turn up worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’ve already lost.”
Usain Bolt
25. “Improved productivity means less human sweat, not more.”
Henry Ford
26. “Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”
Thomas Jefferson
27. “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie
28. “Life is too complicated not to be orderly.”
Martha Stewart
29. “Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.”
Franz Kafka
30. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
Albert Einstein
31. “The true price of anything you do is the amount of time you exchange for it.”
Henry David Thoreau
32. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on days when you feel good.”
Jerry West
33. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”
Amelia Earhart
34. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
Stephen King
35. “It’s not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.”
Tony Robbins
36. “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
David Allen
37. “I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.”
Oprah Winfrey
38. “Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation.”
Brian Tracy
39. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Benjamin Franklin
40.”You don’t need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment.”
Seth Godin
Final Thoughts
I hope these quotes inspire you to accomplish more and achieve success.
Missed out your favourite quote? Let us know in the comments below.
Related: 40 Motivational Quotes For Work Productivity and Success
