Alexandra Petri Quotes

I don't have a good work ethic. I have a real casual relationship with hours.

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

Am I a slacker? I can be a slacker. When I was in college, most people got summer jobs for college or did research during college. I went home and watched TV the whole day for three months; it was really awesome.

A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.

I'm on time even when I try not to be.

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 am definitely going to take a course on time management... just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.

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

If I waited to be inspired to go to the gym, I'd never get there. I schedule my exercise time; I schedule my work time. This is especially important if you have a day job as I did while writing my first seven novels.

I tend to have a hard time working on pieces long before they're due. That's why I think the fact that I write a column is really good for me - the column has to be done, and there's no getting around it.

The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the good fight.

I kind of try to resist working a lot. I'm not a very disciplined worker.

What I need is a search engine that, no matter what I type in, comes back with GO BACK TO WORK.

What is easy to do is also easy not to do.

Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn't do nothing.

Did ya ever think that we would pay the price for being lazy?

While I am on, I can discipline myself to that extent. When I am off, I can't discipline myself at all. On the other hand, when I am off, there are so many things I like doing, it doesn't really matter.

Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle

Don't think that you can make up for it by working twice as hard tomorrow. If you have it within your power to work twice as hard, why aren't you doing it now?

My work ethic I learned at Miami High, and I have taken that with me.

I get up at 4:30 in the morning, seven days a week, no matter where I am in the world.

I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to - mostly the latter.

If I didn't have my little schedule book, I wouldn't get out of bed in the morning.

I would teach from nine to four, sleep an hour, and write from six until midnight, night after night.

My mother was a pediatrician, and she kept busy hours. I learned from her you could pack a lot into the day. Every minute had to count, and multitasking was a given.