Jane writes about decluttering both physically and mentally. I did some of that yesterday. I need to do some more. I can live with clutter as long as I’m not thinking, “Is there something important in that pile that I need to attend to?” There are also little tasks I’ve put off, some for home and some for work. I’m hoping to be clutter free by the end of the week.

I dropped my book club a while back and now I’m considering dropping my writing group. The book group wasn’t hard to drop. It had grown huge and I didn’t really know many of the people in the group and didn’t have much in common with them (I was the only full time working person). The writing group is another thing. I like them. It’s a small group and hasn’t changed in two years. But I’m finding I don’t have time for it. They motivate me to write. I find, though, that reading their work takes up valuable writing time. And I feel guilty that I no longer want to commit to helping my fellow writers. But this is part of my decluttering–decluttering my schedule. Next semester (in just 3 weeks), I will be holding down a full time job and teaching a course. And there are after-school activities for the kids and a desire to stay on top of the homework. And I really, really want to make progress on the book. My life needs to run like a well-oiled machine if all that’s going to happen.

So I have to decide whether to drop the group today. I’m considering telling them that I’m debating it and see if they have suggestions or if they, too, think it might be best for me to move on. I’ve been a bit lax about the group over the summer and I suspect they haven’t been too happy with that. Saying no is such a hard thing.