I personally find that my mind wonders if I do the same thing for too long. If you find that you are the same way, as soon as you feel that happening, stop. If you have a goal of 20 minutes and just did 4 minutes, then you owe yourself 16 more minutes.
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Hi, Aaron. I mentioned elsewhere recently that we are all tackling two simultaneous challenges as self-taught guitar players: learning to play guitar AND learning to teach someone (ourselves) to play guitar. Yes, the resources that Justin provides are extraordinary, but it’s still down to us to observe our strengths and weaknesses, recognize our learning styles, and adapt our practice to maintain progress and interest. Few if any of us have the training to do that, so we’re all kind of winging it. You clearly are doing all of those things and are looking for places to improve your approach. I’m impressed by your self-awareness and commitment to learning.
My understanding of the purpose of this community is that it is to help fill in those gaps. Since we’re all feeling our way through this self-teaching thing and using the same lessons, we might as well share our questions and experiences, because it’s bound to benefit someone else. And we see repeatedly that it does. Asking the questions you did here was - in my opinion - precisely how this platform was intended to be used. I commend you for taking that step, too.
I can’t add anything to the excellent responses that several people have given. I hope they’ll help you adjust your schedule in a way that works well. I also hope you’ll be comfortable posting questions in the future and not be put off by the few negative responses. I think people sometimes forget to employ empathy and that we’re here to support one another. As someone recently said in another topic:
“Make sure to go out and encourage someone today, you never know how you might just change their life.”
Words to live by.
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Moderator intervention
I have been alerted to comments in this topic.
For years we have worked to foster a respectful spirit of mutual encouragement and support. The very essence of this Community is that each and every one of us, with no exception or prejudice, may at one time or another need to ask questions or lean on others as we hit difficulties or frustrations and plateaus.
Whilst not explicitly written in our etiquette, there are certain fundamental attitudes that we encourage, and those we do not accept. There are examples of clear and supportive help in this conversation, directly addressing Aaron’s struggles which is all to the good. However, dismissing people’s questions in the brusque manner I have just seen a couple of comments to Aaron that fall a long way short of the overall character of help we hope that people are offered.
@AaronAddams stated from the outset that he is neurodiverse. That should be respected, and the public declaration of it seen and acknowledged - as many people in this topic have done. If you are unaware of autism and the challenges it presents then please take some time to learn. And refrain from commenting in this topic - especially if your words are going to be presented in an offensive manner.
Thank you.
Richard
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I came back out of a vacation of 2 weeks, I’m sorry I couldn’t check this thread earlier.
As long time JustinGuitar team member it is always nice to read that @Richard_close2u can put our values into words exactly as how we feel about it. Even though we differ in style, character and so many things; these things we are always in agreement about <3
I’m going to bend the “we all have issues” comments. We all have but that’s exactly why we are here!
We all have challenges in life with some having more impact on the topic at hand: learning to play the guitar.
I consider myself lucky that my personal challenges would probably be considered by most as “small impact” although they challenge me on a daily basis to persue things in life.
Therefor Thank you @AaronAddams for being open about this and I think you raise a good point.
This helps in managing the expectations.
You stated that you benefit from a rigid structure and concrete steps.
To incorpotate that into an answer to you could use:
I believe you can do both; you can create a schedule that combines your regular progress as your “extra attention to rusty area’s”.
Practise cycles?
I would suggest you could try to work in 2-day or 3-day iterations.
1 day: regular practice blocks as you are use to do
1 day: focus on rusty bits and a small chunck of regular practice
optional: 1 day: 50/50
The clue for you is: self-assessment: find a way to detarmine WHAT the rusty bit is and try to set a mesurable short time goal. figure out a way to do that sels-assessment in a structured way: example: a self-made score card where you grade your progress on your practice areas with either 3 kind of smileys, a 5 star rating or a number if that suits you better. after each cycle of 2 of 3 days, this assessment will not only pay attentino to rusty bits, it will also prevent some “future rusty bits”.
You could approach it as we used to do backups at work.
We made a backup every day
Every thursday we didn’t make a day backup but a week backup
every last thursday of the month, we didn’t do a week- but a month backup
You could use that method with tracking your practice, your progress and how you FEEL about it.
Why do I say this?
Because it will help you identify the areas you should fill in your shedule on “rusty bit slots”.
Also; as soon as you start to doubt your own progress, you have something to show and discuss with the help you call in.
So basically you’re saying you should start logging?
maybe I do but the important thing is to CLOSE the loop:
measure; adapt, do, measure again,…
if you don’t do anything based on the logs, it could still be useful as a kind of closure ritual but you will benefit more to couple assessment to your next action 
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Thank you and @Richard_close2u , this is really really helpful.
Some of the community reached out to me privately too and gave some great advice and support.
They were really helpful and kind.
I have already improved more this month than in the last the 3 combined, thank you so much for your support and the hard work you all put in 
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