It's March, and now i'm having a big problem: i couldn't make much progress last month. The list keeps growing longer and longer and that means longer waits for my clients. When they see the long list, it discourages them from getting another commission from me.

What happened? Life stuff got in the way, didn't have much time to draw, and then when i get the chance to make progress on commissions: i can't focus and i fall asleep very frequently, i end up staying up late trying to work on my irl job and my freelancer artist job at the same time and that means less sleep hours and i grow more and more tired each day.

Besides, due to stress i didnt have a good mental health lately since i had a hard time trying to organize my schedules, i ended up making mistakes over and over making me feel bad about myself all the time. And if i keep making this commission list longer, that will only make my mental health worse, it only reinforces my negative thoughts.

Which is why I will only worry about finishing what i owe, and then i will open again when the list gets EMPTY at last.
I hope you understand, and im sorry for my lack of professionalism if things got a little messy while i was working with your commission, i'm always trying to provide the best service and i the only thing i care about is to make people happy with my work...

EDIT: I'm gonna add this too because it needed to be in the journal and not in the reply at someone directly.

There's a common mistake around the art community that's usually ignored: Before you start working on commissions, you've got to make sure enough people are actually interested in getting a pic from you. Sure, a lot of them would LOVE to ask for requests, but not all of em are willing to spend any money for that.
First, you've got to build your gallery and portfolio, get enough people find your work and follow you for more updates.
Then, when you've got a big following, test the waters with a standard price. Not too expensive, not too cheap. Look at artists with similar artstyle and artwork and their prices, make a sheet with an average price based on how much they charge and start from there.
Don't have enough customers? Lower the price and try again
Having a lot of customers you dont have time to do em all? Just choose a few of em and bump up the prices next time you open up.
It's all about offer and demand. You have to keep it updated based upon how much time you've got and how many people are interested in your work. I haven't updated my prices since 2024 because i was very lazy about it and stayed the way it was for 2 years.

You don't have the time to please everybody, but at the same time you'll need to get income so you've got to listen to your followers. I've made a huge mistake for not learning to say "No" when i wasn't available to keep growing the list not only to please people but to have a stable income each month.
--BUT WAAAAAIIIT A MINUTE, what about my IRL job?!!!
Well, the thing is that i am not getting enough money with my irl job so i've been working on commissions to compensate that. But right now i have enough to survive half of the year so i guess i will have to put a stop to that for now until i've finished the commissions i owe!
It's time to start worrying my mental health instead, take my time on the commissions and take it easy, i will finish em when it's done and balance my irl job with my hobby i love: Which is drawing, working on commissions are my only escape i forget it's technically a job as well.

~JAMEArts~