75 Productivity Quotes For Work, Life and Making the Most of You

Productivity quotes on Everyday Power.

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Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration. 

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1. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on days when you feel good.”
― Jerry West

You will also enjoy our article on motivational work quotes.

2. “There is no substitute for hard work.” – Thomas A. Edison

3. “The true price of anything you do is the amount of time you exchange for it.”
― Henry David Thoreau

4. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee

You will also enjoy our article on quotes for efficiency.

5. “It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.”
― Nathan W. Morris

You will also enjoy our article on note-taking quotes.

6. “It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”
― Henry David Thoreau

7. “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” – Voltaire

Productivity Quotes For Work, Life and Making the Most of You

Don’t forget to also read our collection of productivity quotes for employees.

8. The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.” – Thomas Sowell

9. Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker

10. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King

11. “Everyday that I procrastinate, everyday that I sit stagnant in fear, everyday 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

12. 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

13. “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

14. If you commit to giving more time than you have to spend, you will constantly be running from time debt collectors. – Elizabeth Grace Saunders

15. There is no waste in the world that equals the waste from needless, ill-directed, and ineffective motions. – Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr.

You might also like our list of best team building quotes that promote working together.

16. My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do. – Francine Jay

17. “As long as I am breathing, in my eyes, I am just beginning.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy

18. “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

19. “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” ― David Allen

Productivity quotes to make your day better

20. “Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law” ― Douglas R. Hofstadter

21. “Consider everything an experiment.” ― Corita Kent

22. “Create with the heart; build with the mind.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy

23. “On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur.” ― Evelyn Underhill

24. “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The Sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus” ― Alexander Graham Bell

25. “Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.” ― Leo Babauta

Also, check out these employee appreciation quotes to motivate your team.

26. In trying to find who you are, be less destructive and more constructive. Look at art or whatever your passion is and be productive.” – Nirrimi Joy Hakanson

27. While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” – Henry C. Link

28. Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker

29. The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity. – Thomas J. Peters

30. When you waste a moment, you have killed it in a sense, squandering an irreplaceable opportunity. But when you use the moment properly, filling it with purpose and productivity, it lives on forever.” – Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Motivational Productivity Quotes

31. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.” – Milton Friedman

32. I have a lot of nervous energy. Work is my best way of channelling that into something productive unless I want to wind up assaulting the postman or gardener.” – Ben Stiller

33. 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

34. Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of planning quotes to help you take control of your life.

35. The productivity of a work group seems to depend on how the group members see their own goals in relation to the goals of the organization.” – Ken Blanchard

Don’t forget to also check out these hustle quotes to help you get things done.

36. Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. – Francis Of Assisi

37. 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

38. 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

39. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. – Walt Disney

40. 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

41. People often remark that I’m pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the change to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it. – Frank Sinatra

42. Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. – Oprah Winfrey

43. It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. – Albert Einstein

Productivity quotes to inspire success

44. You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. – Zig Ziglar

45. Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night. – Michael Jordan

46. “Cell phones, mobile e-mail, and all the other cool and slick gadgets can cause massive losses in our creative output and overall productivity. – Robin S. Sharma

47. “Our future growth relies on competitiveness and innovation, skills and productivity… and these in turn rely on the education of our people. – Julia Gillard

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of innovation quotes that will inspire you to find new successes by trying new things.

48. “I turned down a scholarship to Yale. The problem with college is that 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

49. “Understanding your employee’s perspective can go a long way towards increasing productivity and happiness. – Kathryn Minshew

50. The reality is that business and investment spending are the true leading indicators of the economy and the stock market. If you want to know where the stock market is headed, forget about consumer spending and retail sales figures. Look to business spending, price inflation, interest rates, and productivity gains. – Mark Skousen

51. “Even though worker capacity and motivation are destroyed when leaders choose power over productivity, it appears that bosses would rather be in control than have the organization work well. – Margaret J. Wheatley

52. “On my desk I have three screens, synchronized to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you’ll never go back, because it has a direct impact on productivity. – Bill Gates

53. “Paying good wages is not in opposition to good productivity. – James Sinegal

Don’t forget to also check out these encouraging quotes to help keep you going.

More Productivity Quotes

54. “One of the great challenges of our age, in which the tools of our productivity are also the tools of our leisure, is to figure out how to make more useful those moments of procrastination when we’re idling in front of our computer screens. – Joshua Foer

55. “A wonderful emotion to get things moving when one is stuck is anger. It was anger more than anything else that had set me off, roused me into productivity and creativity. – Mary Garden

56. “Time management is about life management.” – Idowu Koyenikan

57. “If you have time to whine then you have time to find solution.” – Dee Dee Artner

58. “Don’t interpret anything too much. This is time waster number 1.” – Dee Dee Artner

59. “To be fruitful and productive is to invest in time.” – Sunday Adelaja

60. “Your race against life must yield effort for you to be productive.” – Sunday Adelaja

61. “Plans are only as good as the actions behind them.” – Todd Stocker

62. “The happier you are, the more productive you will become.” – Chris Bailey

63. “Sometimes, getting it done is better than perfect.” – Anonymous

64. “Productivity is to create asymmetrical situations where your one good input creates many good outputs.” – Richie Norton

65. “Making the jump between knowing and doing is what productivity is all about.” – Chris Bailey

Productivity quotes to validate your need to hustle

66. “Where your attention goes, your time goes.” ― Idowu Koyenikan

67. “When we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding.” ― David Allen

68. “Busy people have goals and productive people have priorities” ― Sharat Sharma

69. “Want to be more productive? Uncover the subtle nuances that steal your productivity and fix those.” ― Allison Graham

70. “For real productivity, however, we need to prioritize people. You’re a human being, not a human doing.” ― Michael Hyatt

71. “Every minute we spend on something useless is a minute we lose working on something useful.” ― Chris Bailey

72. “Putting in the time doesn’t cut it; getting the job done right is what counts.” ― Frank Sonnenberg

73. “The only way to do a lot of work is to make it fun.” ― Meir Ezra

74. “Being tired is pleasant when you think what has tired you was worth the portion of your life.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

75. “Productivity isn’t about doing more things—it’s about doing the right things.” ― Chris Bailey