Anton du Beke Quotes

I would never finish a painting if I didn't have a deadline.

It's very easy to fool yourself that you're working, you know, when you're really not working very hard. I mean, I'm very lazy. So for me, I would always have an excuse, you know, to go - quit early, go to a museum, you know. So I do everything I can to make myself remember this is a job. I keep a schedule.

Having deadlines helps because people are constantly breathing down my neck, and tapping their toes waiting for pages. So I just have to work nine to five. If I didn't have deadlines then I might be more of a golden hour kind of guy, writing from eight to noon and calling it a day, but that's just not the way I work right now.

I'm a terrible procrastinator.

If you once turn on your side after the hour at which you ought to rise, it is all over. Bolt up at once.

My block was due to two overlapping factors: laziness and lack of discipline.

Deadlines aren't bad. They help you organize your time. They help you set priorities. They make you get going when you might not feel like it.

I'm not always as disciplined as I should be. I don't sit down and write every day, but I should.

Also, I need deadlines, just like everybody else, especially coming from magazines, newspapers, and stuff like that. I need daily or weekly deadlines to get stuff done, or I continue to do things and not go off on a year of unproductivity.

I have to watch out for being lazy.

Without deadlines and restrictions I just tend to become preoccupied with other things.

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed be doing at that moment.

Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.

I waste most of the day, then finally start to write around 3 P.M., totally disgusted with myself for my wasteful nature.

I have certain rules that I've established for myself that took a while post-day job to figure out. Everyone says people who freelance or are writers struggle with the structure of it. I'm not allowed to check email before a certain hour. I'm not allowed to run errands during the day. I have to write a certain amount every day.

I am one of the great wasters of time. I have made it an art form. I can get up at 8 o'clock in the morning, be out of the house by 8:30 and back by 5 P.M., and I'll be going all day long and accomplish absolutely nothing. It's an amazing talent.

You really need to have that discipline. It's not even discipline. I just put down these rules. It's not like a vague, 'Motivate yourself!' and do something. It's specific hours set aside every day for certain things.

I like to work and it kind of keeps me in line, which is very good because I need that structure.

You can't get anything done hanging out all day long.

I'm a big believer in regularity. My father taught me that. Get up early, get your work done, and that's, what, your highest level of energy before lunch.

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

I used to delay doing stuff that I just didn't want to deal with - things like putting the garden hose away properly or doing the dishes right after dinner. Now I have this little voice in my head that says, 'I know you don't want to do this, but just do it anyway.' In other words, there's far less stuff that I put off until tomorrow.

I'm not a particularly disciplined person in terms of my work habits.

The biggest challenge is to stay focused. It's to have the discipline when there are so many competing things.

I just tell myself I gotta get up at 8 A.M. I don't even use an alarm clock.