How many balls are too many?

Most of us would be and already published writers are not lucky enough to be able just to concentrate on being a writer and writing. I know few writers in this day of the doom and gloom economy living the high life, and I don't mean Miller, off their earnings as a writer.

If you are like me, you have another job, or several, which supplement your income and keep your dream afloat until the big call comes from the NY firms telling you they want to offer you a movie deal. I maintain two jobs, am a full time mother of two young children, and blog on this blog as well as my local critique group's blog and a personal blog. Sometimes it is a feat in mind gymnastics to keep up with all my commitments, and eking out time actually to write can be incredibly challenging.

I have been trying to set aside one hour every afternoon and one hour every night to writing. On a rare weekend, I sometimes get to write for four or five hours straight and in these times, I feel as if I have won the lottery. As my commitments seem to keep piling up, and my time to write dwindles before my eyes, I was reminded today of a NYT bestseller that I heard speak at Nationals. She said the most important thing you can do as a writer is write your stories. Everything else is secondary and takes away from getting your first book published or the next book published.

Obviously, a job to put food on the table is not secondary, but I do have a few things I can pull back from like judging contest, surfing the web, and too many extra curricular "fun" clubs. It's a choice, and I chose to write and make my dream come true.

Do you manage all your commitments without being taken away from writing or do you need to pull back and look at what you can wipe from your screen so you can once again see the path to your dream?