As a result of my inability to say no to projects and by nature being a driven person, this fall I have taken on way too many responsibilities. Last year I thought the same thing and the year before that as well, and so on. But this time I really tried to top all other attempts to become overwhelmingly busy and I succeeded. Yes, I am so stupid.

So, some things have fallen by the wayside over the past few months.

• My dog is happy because I no longer give her baths.
• I don't clean my house. (Fortunately someone gets paid to do that for me.)
• I don't clean my car. I'm quite proud of the moving garbage pile.
• I don't iron my clothes.
• Most of my clothes are too big now, anyway, so that limits the amount of clothes I would have to iron.
• When something breaks, it stays broken.
• Each issue of the Wall Street Journal is piled up on top of Ruby's crate, still in its plastic wrapping.
• I stopped wearing jewelry and lipstick because it takes too much time to bother with.
• And then I stopped noticing everything around me that used to bug me.
• And then I pretty much stopped noticing everything else, too.

I like this article here that talks about ways to handle all the things that you have committed to do.

The author says:
... there will always be more to do. Working more won’t change that. In fact, working more is actually counter-productive.

Yep, the real problem is not getting the work done, it's taking on more and more work as more work is getting done. If they gave doctorates in this, I would have a PhD in workaholism. Thus, I want to learn to work more efficiently and say no to people who want me to take on more work. I've had a few more freelance jobs fall into my lap recently, and I turned them down. That felt good.