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Zoiks, This Has Been a Crazy Week for Practice

No matter how much you buy into the practice cliches the truth remains the same; nothing can kill you best intentions like a crazy week. An illness in the family, and extra project at work or school, or a much deserved weekend away from home will usually wreak havoc on your weekly results with the guitar. So what to do because, guess what, the crazy week is here to stay. Here's how I deal with it: I don't practice -and then I do practice.

I remember in driving school one my classmates asked the instructor what to do if an accident with an oncoming car was completely unavoidable? “hit it,” he said. It was good advice.
In a sky diving class I heard a student asked what they should do if their auxiliary parachute does not open. “Don't stop trying,” he wisely recommended.

Okay, it's three in the morning and you finally finished that big project you needed to have done by tomorrow. There is no way you are going to take your guitar out and start enjoying playing Blackbird. So what to do? Just don't practice. Skip it, forget about it. And then ... think about your week coming up. Pick a long time when nothing is going on and you might enjoy playing, then guard that stretch of time like a hawk. Remember, practice time is either scheduled or captured it is never happened upon.

If you scheduling fails, then it is time to resort to plan B -and then B very sure to B there!

Everyone has trouble finding time to practice. What do you do to try to make it work? I’d like to hear about it.