Daily Inspiration Quote by J. R. R. Tolkien

Procrastination isn’t framed here as a cute quirk; it’s treated like a thief of time that operates by illusion. Tolkien’s line turns a common self-deception inside out: we tell ourselves the task will be quicker once we “get in the mood,” but the refusal to begin is exactly what expands it. The wit is in the paradox. A job that has literally not begun cannot be “taking” any time at all, and yet it feels interminable. Tolkien is naming the psychological drag created by dread, perfectionism, and the swampy, formless anxiety of the undefined.

The intent is practical counsel with a moral undertone. Starting isn’t just a productivity hack; it’s a small act of courage, the moment when the shapeless monster becomes a sequence of steps. Subtext: the real burden isn’t effort, it’s anticipation. Once you begin, the task becomes measurable, therefore survivable. Tolkien’s phrasing also carries a storyteller’s rhythm: “job” and “started” are plain, workaday words, grounded in the physical world of chores, not abstractions. That plainness is part of why it lands.

Context matters. Tolkien wrote about journeys where the hardest part is leaving the Shire, not slaying the dragon. In his fiction, evil often wins by delay, distraction, and comfort; quests fail when characters linger. Read against his own life - an academic juggling teaching, scholarship, and a long, slow masterpiece - the line sounds like hard-earned self-instruction. It’s not romantic about inspiration. It’s a reminder that momentum is its own magic.