I am a terrible salesperson. Please, buy my books! And leave a review (cough cough…if it’s four stars or more). Yeah, as I mentioned, I’m not very good at this. When I think about how to connect with readers, writers, and friends, I don’t even think about my AMAZING books (lol). I think about personal things. I wonder what people are doing.

I want to ask, what steals your time? In other words, what commitments do you have that pull you through your day, week, or month? If you were to write it out, I bet it would be a longer list than you first thought. Here are a few things that steal my time.

My day job, kids, dogs, garden, friends, husband, managing the house, and of course writing. However, if I broke it down further, the list grows. For example, what about my friends? How are they stealing my time? It sounds a little harsh to think that my friends are encroaching on my personal space. I genuinely care about my friends and their well-being. I’m interested in their lives, and that compels me to insert myself into their timeline. I can only assume, and hope, that my friends feel the same about me.

Friends steal my time because I connect with them. We plan a meal, a hike, or catch up at an event not intended for catching up, like the sidelines of the soccer field or running into them at the pet store.

Writing steals my time, but is interrupted by other time suckers. It’s always falling in last place. The most bendable of the things I commit to. It’s something I can do anytime there’s access to my computer. I’ve taken it with me to my daughter’s basketball practice, or the beach, where I get mornings to myself. I try to get up early on workdays to get a little writing done, but it almost always fails.

Mom. That’s a big one. It seems Mom is the time sucker with the biggest priority. I’m not complaining. This is the life I’ve created, and it’s a pretty good one.

What steals your time? We may have a few things that overlap, but we will also have unique elements that control time. We never know the full extent of what others have going on in their personal lives and how it weighs on them.