This is so true for me as well… I spend all day working on a laptop and wanting to play bass instead. Then when I finally finish work I just want to lie on the couch and not do anything.
Ah… quiet time 
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Thanks. I pretty much beat myself up for not practicing when I’m exhausted from work or just tired.
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I’ve just had 11 days of not playing due to personal stuff and beat myself up every day. I even started looking for a cheap bass where I was but talked myself out of that.
I’ve noticed my fingers have softened though!
On a side note, if I’m tired and try and practice it usually turns crap and just frustrates me. So sometimes it is best to let sleeping dogs lie
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@Mac, far be it from me to give anyone advice, but when I’m tired and haven’t practiced, I’ll just try to noodle around or do some scales against a backing drum beat for 15 minutes or so, or longer if I feel up to it. It’s relaxing and doesn’t feel like practice. More of a chilled out finger yoga sort of thing.
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That mixed with my lack of discipline…I don’t practice the things I SHOULD practice. I’m always noodling or writing a new song or fun little bass riff. And don’t get me wrong it IS practice and has improved my playing a LOT, but I always skip the boring stuff. Playing up and down scales, chords, triads, tempo increases etc… I know I should study it and know it would help me a lot!
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Yeah, I’ve struggled with this too. And for awhile I felt like I wasn’t really progressing. I just kept playing the same riffs over and over each practice. Of course, any playing is good, unless you are reinforcing bad habits, but that’s rare. But I’m now really trying to push my playing forward. One rough rule of thumb I try to do is:
1/3rd technique/theory - this can be things like music theory, scales, or finger exercises, etc. I prefer to do this at the beginning to loosen up my fingers for the rest of the practice.
1/3rd playing/transcribing others songs - I used to skip this, but have found that learning how others have approached the bass adds to my mental toolkit significantly. Knowing how to play known songs also helps you connect with others because it is like you are speaking a common language.
1/3rd improvising - Sometimes it’s constructive like working on a song. Sometimes it is just messing around. Sometimes it starts with messing around and turns into a song.
Usually in that order. And I don’t use this as a firm rule. Certainly times I just improvise for example, but I find for me personally I think this system helps me develop the most.
Everyone has to find what works best for them though.
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Yeah, thats how I felt after 3 months of not playing. and it was hard to get started back because If felt and sounded so crappy. But I pretty quickly snapped out of it by learning a few punk rock songs.
Not very hard to play, lots of aggression and I learned new songs.
Maybe just pick a song, not to hard, but plenty rock n roll, and play it for a while til you are stoked playing it, then maybe you will catch the fever again.
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Same here, @T_dub . . . I think both of us were in the hospital last October, and I didn’t pick up my bass again until around Christmas.
Thats exactly what I did with a little inspiration from @PamPurrs (My Generation) and @Lanny (We Gotta Get Out of This Place). Once I started to actually accomplish something and see some progress, I was able to get back into it again . . . 
Cheers
Joe
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I’m this way too. Tough to put in 14 hours, eat, shower, etc., and still have 30 minutes to practice before bed.
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It took me a little longer, and it wasn’t so much that I lacked motivation to play, I felt so poorly for so long after that stay, due to medications and illness and juts the toll it put on my body, that I couldn’t get motivated to play thru the misery, but once that wore off, it was pretty quick I was back to the races, but just like you, it was just learning a song.
I didn’t rush back to where I left off on TalkingBass.com, (middle of Chord Tones Essentials and 1/3 of sight reading) I just wanted to get the feel back and so I just started watching youtube videos of “Covers with tabs”, and found a song, gave it a try, put a couple on hold because I was not ready, but when I found about 5 songs that I would be able to work thru, then I caught on fire for it again.
I didn’t start to play again until after the first of the year, and I just started back to complete my modules at Talking bass this weekend.
I got a memo from Mark at Talking Bass, saying the all access pass was coming to an end, and it would be no longer in June. So he was giving a 3 month warning the end, so that was the motivator to get back on the lessons. I spent the weekend brushing up on what I had covered, watching some of the lessons over, and just reading and playing the lessons to get my memory back, and I am ready to start on new content later today.
The clock is ticking. LOL
I should be able to get the Chord Tone Essentials done, no problem, but I am not sure if I will complete the Sight Reading ones, but there are some other options for that when time comes.
I actually just started going ba
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