Consider trying to practice an hour a day, but break it up into 20 minute sessions. 1 session on scales and technique, 1 session on a tune you are trying to learn, and the last session on whatever needs the most work at the time. If we go past 20 or 25 minutes, we begin to get diminishing returns on our practice time investment, and end up with body parts hurting. A break for our body AND our brain is good between sessions. I’ve done a session before work, sometime after work, and just before bed time. It doesn’t alway work out that nicely but its the schedule I try to keep.
Also, like @Mike_R said, give yourself a break when it doesn’t come together just right and ENJOY the journey! You’ll get there!!
Realistic Expectations for Progress
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My humble apologizes. Just ignore my advise I thought you were seeking help. I can see now I was wrong . I’ll try not to rush to judgment in future.
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How me saying I’m not stressed could be taken as not wanting help is beyond me. I didn’t intend to imply that at all.
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Sorry I can’t help you. I made a few suggestions clearly not the advice you were hoping for.
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Regardless, I do appreciate you taking time to respond. I didn’t mean to offend. I will use the advice you did offer, and be sure to put down the guitar when I get frustrated.
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Here are a couple YouTube videos from a banjo playing neurologist regarding effective practices:
They are at least food for thought. Dr Turknett’s overall message is that we need to build neural pathways, and those grow while sleeping based on our focus that day.
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Hi Ryan , I am not offended, I am here to help if I am able, if my advise is not what your seeking then that’s not a problem for me you’ll need to be patient until @BanjoBen is available to address your query
In you initial post you said
That’s something you need to resolve on your own.
You asked for our opinion, I shared mine. So now I need to get on and fit in some practice before I head to bed.
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Archie, I think what Ryan is hinting at is he has deep pocket! 
This reminds me of a game where you pass a message using sign language to a number of others each one passing to the other in succession and how it is finally understood.
Ryan said busiest->I mentioned burden (I partly take the blame)->You said stress->Any others?? 
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Ouch! I wouldn’t do that. I get inspired by the kids here but I will never try to match them as we have only limited time.
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Hi @JohnM
When I was working and had a young family life was pretty stressful even if I didn’t recognise it at the time. It was definitely there. I had a really short fuse and would snap at folks without realising it. My doctor quickly diagnosed the problem. I was working long hours, grabbing food on the go and trying to do too many things. In the end I walked away from a job I loved and my health improved overnight. As I said in my post to Ryan he needs to figure out what works for him. I wish him well bear him no ill.
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I definitely don’t have deep pockets, lol. I assume you’re referring to wealth. All is well, Archie wasn’t offended. I apologized, thinking he was. Let’s move on from the misunderstanding. He is right I think in that I need to figure out how to practice on my own. Each person learns differently (I can see that in my two homeschooling children), it’s more than likely my lack of patience, which has been addressed by others (i.e. take your time, smaller spaced out sessions). I’ll just have to keep grinding it out.
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Ok Guy’s I think we need to draw this topic to a close before this goes south. @BanjoBen will be back in a few days and hopefully he will be free to take up the reigns on this and find a solution.
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Find yourself some social gathering, a bustling atmosphere, or just a secluded room. Put an instrument in your hands and start messing around on it. The world and all its troubles go away.
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Hi Archie, the handling might differ but I think everyone has their own problem. We also learn and adjust. I think everyone should be understanding and be ok as we are only within acceptable limits. It keeps it interesting instead of being boring.
Ryan - yeah I meant wealth. I don’t know any other meaning to it even if it had!
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In the same boat. Full time job with overtime and two young kids with about the same practice time. I always ask myself, at what point can I say, I’m a musician or a mandolin player?
Well here’s the thing, learning anything new is hard and being good at it is even harder. Here’s how my progress has gone, maybe it will help. I have been playing mandolin for a year or so. I have played through every beginner series with a pretty decent degree of proficiency on the banjo ben site and have finally progressed to intermediate(for mandolin). I also study YouTube videos, and have purchased multiple books on scales, chords, and music theory. I have learned the G and A major and minor scales up and down the whole neck and am moving on to other scales now, and I can find a note or chord pretty good by ear now. That’s a lot, right? That’s progress, and when I first started I didn’t know anything. BUUUUT, if someone comes up to me and asks me to play something, I cannot play anything. None of the songs I’ve learned are committed to memory, I learned them and moved on. And playing a scale or a lick is unimpressive right? So here’s my point, I can learn an intermediate song that someone can readily recognize and appear that I can play well, all I have to do is play that song over and over until i master it. But I’m like a one trick pony. I have learned a song, but I have not learned how to create music or express myself on the instrument. But that is my goal. Often times this is discouraging because it feels like I’m running in place, but I noticed it doesn’t take me as long to learn new songs now and I play with others on a basic level, I can create my own licks and piece things together now. If someone wants to hear amazing grace or something I can easily look it over an recall most of the song quickly… so all these things, I tell myself, is a degree of measurable progress towards my goal as a new musician, but not others expectations of what I should know. U have to ask yourself what your goal is. Define what progress is to you? Since ur a guitar player do u want to just be able to strum a few chords and sing? No shame in that and it is impressive to see someone pick a guitar and strum and sing, always a crowd pleaser. Or do unwant to be picker, or perform great solos. All these goals have intersecting avenues but very different paths.
So always try to remember where u started and where u are now. And set small definable goals. And try to enjoy the journey. It’s not always fun, but as long as it brings u happiness keep at it.
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These are great 
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Great post James.
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Hi @Just_James and anyone else in this situation.
I kinda look on life as a toy box, The box is really small and only so many toys can fit in there at any one time. Try to squeeze in more and the box will break. So I keep my fav toy’s near the top within easy reach. Like my banjo it’s always handy and within reach each time a moment comes along when I feel like playing. That’s how I manage my practice. I don’t set schedule, I just log in to Ben’s lessons find the lesson I want to study click on it and absorb all the information he has assembled and worked so hard to produce.
So the advice I tend to give out is follow the path Ben has set out for your particular instrument. As you work though the lessons you will learn the knowledge and the skills you need to progress to the next level. How long you spend is determined by your lifestyle. No one can adjust that except you. Remember there is only so much room in the toy box, if you want to add something else you gotta make room to fit life in. So check out your life style. How much time are you spending on an activity you least like. ( Excluding chores like taking out the trash, these always take priority. ) Find a way to reduce the time spent on those activities or give them up altogether.
For me that would be golf. 1. I hate standing about in the cold and the rain. 2. It’s really annoying when my ball wont go in the hole. 3. Rich people get richer each time I play. Solution I gave up playing golf. Now I am richer, less stressed out and I am warm and dry having fun with my banjo. You see life ain’t so bad after all.
I hope this helps anyone else struggling to mange practice time.
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This summerizes exactly what helped accelerate my progress on a personal-level. If use your limited time wisely, you’ll improve faster, but first you’ll want to ask yourself what you’re willing to “pay” to be good, because it is work to engage in effective practice. Video or record yourself often to track progress, but don’t forget to have fun playing material you’ve learned. …,…,…
On the Forum, you can find the “Secrets of Effective Practice” by using the search field. I recommend reading it if you get the chance. It revolutionized my playing.
Happy picking!
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Howdy Ryan!
Lots of great advice here. Honestly I have to say that an hour a day in your situation is way more than I would expect. I’m not able to get in an hour a day and it’s kind of my job We have lots of things that pull on us, and much of that is more important than music.
It would help me help you if I knew more about your guitar journey, the kinds of things you’re currently working on and how you’re spending that hour. Also, what are your markers and measurements for success?
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