He had made a mistake that caused a serious problem with one of our clients and knew that he would be disciplined in some way. As it was Friday afternoon I decided not to talk to him until Monday. At the close of our conversation on Monday morning, I asked him if he had any comments. “Just one,” he said, “I wish you had talked to me on Friday. I knew you’d have to deal with this in some way and I couldn’t relax at all this past weekend wondering what the effect would be. Now I can get on with my work.”
If something unpleasant needs to be done, it should be done as soon as possible.
If you have to swallow a spider, it’s best not to look at it too long.
Few things are as exhausting as unfinished tasks.
The best preparation for tomorrow is doing what needs to be done today.
Standing still can be very tiring.
It’s easy not to be able to find time to do something you don’t want to do.
The only thing you can be absolutely sure of accomplishing is what you do now.
You won’t accomplish much if you always wait to be in the right mood.
The future is when you’ll wish you’d done what you aren’t doing now.
You will be consistently outperformed by the person who does today what you put off until tomorrow.
Hard work is often caused by easy tasks not done.
You can’t do everything at once, but you can do something at once.
We are judged by what we finish, not by what we start.
Planning is good, but too much planning may be just an excuse for not doing anything.
You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.
It’s amazing how trivial are many of the things we have to do, and yet how utterly important it is that we do them.
Successful people don’t wait for conditions to be perfect, they do the best they can with conditions as they are.
The time to do what you have to do is when it should be done.
Tomorrow usually gets here before we’re ready for it.
You never know how soon it will be too late.
Doing things on time builds confidence and relieves stress.
Many people spend half their time wishing for things they would have if they didn’t spend half their time wishing.