Hokay... After about a week of planning and deliberating...
I think I've come up with a way that I can actually properly move forward out of this backlog pit I've been stuck in for.... Honestly I have no idea how long at this point..

Based on recommendations from friends, and what I've observed a few other artists do in similar situations...

I'm going to have two separate production queues from now on until the backlog is finally cleared out..

What does this mean?

There will be the current queue, which is where all new commissions, YCH's and anything else will end up from this point forward.
This queue strictly under no circumstances will ever exceed more than TWO items at any given time.. This is for immediate things that will be finished as soon as possible to make room and keep things moving along at a steady pace..

And there will be the backlog queue, which as of this moment is locked down.. Nothing new is going to be added to it, because that has been the problem... I have had difficulty making progress because I'd have to line up new work to make ends meet, which would require shuffling things around without putting clients at too much of a disadvantage time wise... And.. Well, look where that's gotten me..
Putting a lid on it places the queue in a fixed state, which allows me to systematically deal with what needs to be dealt with in an orderly fashion without having to juggle anything new.

What this means, is you'll be seeing new commissions showing up along side commissions that have been in the pipe for a while for reasons beyond my control..
I will be dividing my efforts evenly to keep things moving along, because as much as I hate to admit it.. I NEED to keep bringing in new work, but I still have old work that needs finishing..

I got myself into this situation because of very poor planning on my part...
I'll only be able to pull myself out of it by coming up with a solid plan and sticking with it.