Larry Wall Quotes

Otherwise, my whole career has just been flinging myself at whatever is most overdue first and letting everything else stack up.

Do the jobs you like least first. It makes each successive job easier.

As the day goes on you get more and more tired. Even if people say they're afternoon people or evening people, it's always best to start out first thing in the morning with your most important task as opposed to your email, phone calls, or checking the internet. If you start out with that then basically you'll just do that all day long.

I guess I would say, it's okay to put things off until the very last minute as long as you know you've got them under control.

I have reached the end of my time, and have hardly come to the beginning of my task.

I put second things first, and then worry about first things.

One of the best ways of avoiding necessary and even urgent tasks is to seem to be busily employed on things that are already done.

The fact is that you can't do everything that you have to do. You have to procrastinate on something. Therefore, procrastinate on small tasks.

Leave for tomorrow what you can't do today.

The best cure for procrastination is to have so much on your plate that procrastination is no longer an option.

The living are more demanding; the dead can wait.

Because, as we all know, it’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about.

I have more important things to do anyway. I have a hangnail that needs my attention. (Dev)

People with good work habits have to-do lists that are reasonably prioritized, and they make themselves do what needs to be done. By contrast, people with poor work habits almost randomly react to the stuff that comes at them, or they can't bring themselves to do the things they need to do but don't like to do (or are unable to do).

Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

I do the unpleasant tasks before I do the pleasant ones.

A goal or decision without a deadline has no urgency. It has no real beginning or end.

The infinite we shall do right away. The finite may take a little longer.

When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one's brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use.

Be quick, but don't hurry.

I have always lived my life by making lists: lists of people to call, lists of ideas, lists of companies to set up, lists of people who can make things happen. Each day I work through these lists, and that sequence of calls propels me forward.

Work on one thing at a time until finished.

If there is something that you have to do, resist the temptation to do it under duress. Ask yourself, "What's the worst thing that would happen if I didn't do this?" And if you can get away with not doing it at all, don't do it. And then imagine what would it feel like to have this done. Spend a day or two, if you can, just 15 minutes here, 5 minutes here, 2 minutes here, here and here, imagining it completed in a way that pleases you! And then, the next time you decide that you're going to take action about it, the action is going to be a whole lot easier.

There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.

Do one thing at a time. Start the day with a list of things you have to do, and do the most important things first.