Seeing “Clean the House” filling every blank day did help me remember to say NO to people whose “crap” didn’t make it to my calendar by the 2nd of the month. That part was kinda helpful. But the other part wasn’t. I felt like I didn’t have ANY time to work on things I really wanted to do because I needed to fulfill this commitment first. I was spending more time feeling trapped by it, or guilty for not following through every day, even though I put the words on the calendar myself.

In the end, the house is staying a lot cleaner because I’ve gotten rid of most of the underlying clutter, which probably would have sat there out of the way if I hadn’t done this goal. But now that it’s gone, I have more space and I’m grateful for that.

I’ve discovered some surprising things that cause me stress, and I am glad for that, too. Now I can manage my time better than I could before and I am finding it a LOT easier to say NO when people think it would be fun to have me do things they can and should be doing for themselves.