If you are looking for a quotation about time management, this is your place! I gathered all the famous quotes about time and a few lesser-known ones. From somber to forceful, to playful, here are 140 of the best sayings about time.
After all, time management quotes are everywhere. It seems everyone has a few sayings about time management. Sorting through the massive quantity of time management quotes is time-consuming, so I went ahead and did it for you.
Time management is all about understanding time and our relationship to it and how much of it is wasted. Some people see only today, some are caught on yesterday, and some spend all their time thinking about tomorrow. Here are ways people relate to time.
- “Why kill time when one can employ it.” – Proverb
- “Either run the day or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn
- “Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck
- “We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.” – John F. Kennedy
- “I am definitely going to take a course on time management… Just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.” – Louis E. Boone
- “Boundary setting is really a huge part of time management.” – Jim Loehr
- “Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.” -Chinese Proverb
- “We all know our money isn’t infinite, yet we end up treating our time and energy and attention as if they are.” – Shane Parrish
- “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
Related: Benjamin Franklin’s Time Management System
- “Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.” – Winston Churchill
- “He who knows most grieves most for wasted time.” — Dante
- “Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn.” – Delmore Schwartz
- “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- “If time were to take on human form, would she be your taskmaster or freedom fighter?” – Richie Norton
- “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” – Marthe Troly-Curtin
- “Now is definitely the best time to start, though Yesterday would have beaten it easily.” ― Kalpesh Jain
- “Invest your time because you cannot save it.” ― Amr Okasha
- “You don’t get time. You create time.” ― Sanhita Baruah
- “Learn to make time and everything else will follow.” ― Haresh Sippy
What we pay attention to impacts what we get done. Each person has the power to decide for themselves what is worth doing. Don’t waste time on people that don’t care about you! Properly managing time revolves around the empowerment of deciding for one’s self what is worthwhile.
- “Where your attention goes, your time goes.” ― Idowu Koyenikan
- “All things good happen by not managing time, but prioritizing attention.” ― Richie Norton
- “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” ― Michael Altshuler
- “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
- “You can’t make up for lost time. You can only do better in the future.” ― Ashley Ormon
- “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
- “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
- “One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” ― Yale Richmond
- “Each day, wake up with a plan. Don’t just approach your days in an unfocused void. That state of mind leaves too much room for discontent, opposition, unhappiness and hopelessness.” ― Carlos Wallace
- “The secret of success in life is time rightly used.” ― Sivananda Saraswati
- “What you do with your time on a daily basis determines what values will be added to your life.” ― Sunday Adelaja
- “But in the areas that matter most, a burst of energy and activity cannot reverse the consequences that accompany a season of neglect.” ― Andy Stanley
- “’I don’t have much time’ is a lousy excuse. There is always time, what you don’t have is the skills to manage the time.” ― Alahdal A. Hussein
- “Work on Purpose. Play on Purpose. Rest on Purpose. Do not let yourself or anyone else waste your time.” ― Izey Victoria Odiase
- “Saying no to small things means saying yes to big things.” ― Amit Kalantri,
- “Some people are too busy to find ways to save time.” ― Frank Sonnenberg
- “Good time management requires a shift in focus from activities to results, being busy isn’t the same as being effective, ironically the opposite is always closer to the truth” ― Anath Lee Wales
- “A moment lost multiplied is a lifetime wasted.” ― Chad Edward Hensley
- “Worry wastes time, envy wastes wealth.” ― Amit Kalantri
- “Everyone can kill time, but not everyone can reanimate it” ― Tamerlan Kuzgov
- “The bigger the Vision is, The less Time you will waste” ― Mohsin Khansab
- “Time is the only treasure I have on earth.” ― Mitta Xinindlu
- “You can find a temporary happiness in things like drinking liquor or smoking a joint. But the true one comes when you start embarking on a journey of doing something worthy of esteem and emulation.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson
- “If you think you don’t have enough time, that’s ok, you have time enough. Now do.” ― Richie Norton
- “If you really want to achieve it. Have a deadline on it. If not, you will never complete it.” ― De philosopher DJ Kyos
- “Self-fulfillment grows when you use your time effectively for yourself and for others.” ― Margo Vader
- “We will never have enough time to do everything, but we will always have enough time to do the most important thing.” ― Wilbert Wynnberg
- “It’s not about having the time, it’s about managing the time you already have.” ― Rob Liano
- “Divide the infinite future into five-minute blocks, and take them one by one.” ― Lois McMaster Bujold
- “Time is your capital. Don’t waste it on others, use it for making yourself.” ― Aabas Sadkani
- “I always say, don’t make plans, make options.” – Jennifer Aniston
- “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
Another aspect of time management is what we decide to focus on. Some follow their passions, some follow their duty, and some just do what feels right in that moment. Plan or no plan, there’s a quote for every situation.
- “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” – George Patton
- “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell
- “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King
- “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
- “In both children and adults, there can be a hard-to-deny link between a robust sense of hope and either work productivity or academic achievement.” – Jeffrey Kluger
- “The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.” – Timothy Ferriss
- “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
- “There is nothing less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker
- “Start from wherever you are and with whatever you’ve got.” – Jim Rohm
- “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
- “The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit for doing them.” – Benjamin Jowett
- “The essence of self-discipline is to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.” – Barry Werner
- “We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.” – William Shakespeare
- “You can’t make up for lost time. You can only do better in the future.” – Ashley Ormon
- “Time is what we want most, but what we spend worst.” – William Penn
- “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Mother Teresa
- “The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
- “Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today.” – Wayne Dyer
- “You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “The Best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” -Proverb
- “It’s surprising how much free time and productivity you gain when you lose the busyness in your mind.” – Brittany Burgunder
- “Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment. That is what’s real.” – Sara Paddison
- “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
- “The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.” – Stephen R. Covey
- “If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got.” – Lee Iacocca
- “Don’t make the same decision twice. Spend time and thought to make a solid decision the first time so that you don’t revisit the issue unnecessarily.” – Bill Gates
- “You can do two things at once, but you can’t focus effectively on two things at once.” – Gary Keller
- “Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.” – Anonymous
- “It’s how we spend our time here and now, that really matters. If you are fed up with the way you have come to interact with time, change it.” – Marcia Wieder
- “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” – Earl Nightingale
- “Those who make the worst of their time most complain about its shortness.” – La Bruyere
- “People hurry so they can get to places faster, where they’d rather not be, so they can have more time to do things they’d rather not be doing.” – Peter Turla
- “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
- “Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.” – John C. Maxwell
- “I like to do weird things in the shower, like drink my coffee, brush my teeth and drink a smoothie. It’s good time management.” – Michelle Williams
- “You’ve got to know what you want. This is central to acting on your intentions. When you know what you want, you realize that all there is left then is time management. You’ll manage your time to achieve your goals because you clearly know what you’re trying to achieve in your life.” – Patch Adams
- “This is the key to time management – to see the value of every moment.” – Menachem Mendel Schneerson
- “The secret to modern life is finding the measure in time management. I have two kids, career and I travel, and I don’t think my life is any different than most couples. The most valuable commodity now for many people is time and how to parcel that out.” – Hugh Jackman
- “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight Eisenhower
- “Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late.” – William Shakespeare
- “Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.” – Rodin
- “The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.” – Shoppenhauer
- “A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
- “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
- “Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau
- “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” – Jim Rohn
- “One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” – Tony Robbins
- “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 can be done if we are always doing.” – Thomas Jefferson
- “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
- “Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.” – Thomas Edison
The final part of time management is finding the inspiration and passion necessary to follow through on ideas and plans. Motivation is challenging. Luckily, wise words from some of history’s most productive people are at our fingertips.
- “I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.” – Golda Meir
- “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” — Warren Buffett
- “You can only do so much. There are five more projects you want to do, but you pick the three that are really going to matter, and you try to do those really well, and you don’t even try to do the others.” — Sheryl Sandberg
- “We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” — Arianna Huffington
- “So the pie isn’t perfect? Cut it into wedges. Stay in control, never panic.” — Martha Stewart
- “The question I ask myself like almost every day is, ‘Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?’ Unless I feel like I’m working on the most important problem that I can help with, then I’m not going to feel good about how I’m spending my time.” — Mark Zuckerberg
- “If we think long term we can accomplish things that we wouldn’t otherwise accomplish. Time horizons matter. They matter a lot.” — Jeff Bezos
- “If you don’t have time for the small things, you won’t have time for the big things.” — Richard Branson
- “Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.” — Tim Ferriss
- “Someday always comes suddenly” – Austin Carlile
- “Every day is a micro-representation of our entire lives, it starts with us having a lot of energy and world of possibilities ahead, but if we are not careful, we can end it feeling exhausted, frustrated and leaving many things undone as time is over… Thus, let’s prioritize on what really matters in life every day!” ― Rodolfo Peon
- “Never assume you’ve got a copious time- You haven’t.” ― Salam Al Shereida
- “So be very careful how you spend your time. There is nothing more precious. In the twinkling of an eye, heaven may be won or lost… Man will have no excuse before God at the Day of Judgment when he gives an account of how he spent his time.” ― The Cloud of Unknowing
- “What may be done at any time will be done at no time.” – Scottish Proverb
- “Having all the time in the world makes getting things done impossible.” ― Erica Swyler
- “Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.” – John C. Maxwell
- “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Samuel Levenson
- “Time is like money, the less we have of it to spare the further we make it go.” – Josh Billings
- “We must use time creatively — and forever realize that the time is always hope to do great things.” – Martin Luther King Jr
- “A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.” – Baltasar Gracian
- “In such seconds of decision entire futures are made.” – Dan Simmons
- “The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” – Mike Murdock
- “Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.” – Louisa May Alcott
- “We all have 1440 minutes of life today. How, what or who will you spend it on? Choose wisely. You have 1439 left.” – Sotero M. Lopez II
- “Each day, wake up with a plan. Don’t just approach your days in an unfocused void. That state of mind leaves too much room for discontent, opposition, unhappiness and hopelessness.” – Carlos Wallace
- “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
- “Start by doing what’s necessary; then what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” St. Francis of Assisi
- “Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great.” – Orison Swett Marden
- “One who daily puts the finishing touches on his life is never in want of time.” – Seneca
- “There’s only one thing more precious than our time and that’s who we spend it on.” – Leo Christopher
- “Always in motion is the future.” – Yoda
- “Nothing keeps. There is one law in the universe: NOW.” – Alfred Sutro
- “There’s time enough, but none to spare.” – Anonymous
Every individual needs to decide for themselves what will work best for them. However, time management requires planning, motivation, and direction.
At the end of the day, what really matters is getting the most out of our time. Hopefully, there was at least one quotation about time management that resonated with you. We only get one life, why not live it to its fullest?
