“A man who works regularly in a systematic fashion, never feels over worked or tired. He knows his limits and is able to do in fair time, all that he undertakes. It is not hard work that kills a man but irregularity or lack of system.”
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Attribution note
No dated primary (Young India/Harijan/CWMG/autobiography) could be located for this three-sentence passage on systematic work; it appears only sparsely and without citation, so authorship stays unverified.
Likely origin: Credited to Gandhi in some quote collections with no reliable primary source located.
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Steady rhythm protects you where bursts of effort do not. When work is spread across a predictable schedule, mind and body recover between stretches; it is the scramble, the all-nighter, the feast-then-famine pattern that actually wears people down.
When to use it
- A student who reviews for an hour each evening walks into finals calm, while classmates cramming three nights straight burn out.
- A freelancer who blocks fixed writing hours delivers steadily, unlike a peer who binges for fourteen hours then disappears and misses deadlines.
- Someone who runs three easy miles every other day stays healthy, while a friend who sprints once a month keeps pulling muscles.