Oh yeah, happens all the time, you're definitely not alone on that front. I would say most of us here, except maybe the professionals, wishes they could squeeze more personal pole time out of their lives.
There are a TON of things I wish I had more time for: pole, yoga, medtitation, reading fiction, learning more about Buddhism, traveling, hiking with my dog, writing...
What gets even more frustrating is when I KNOW there are things I could cut back on to make time for any of the above, and I don't. I could stop lingering at work past closing time. I could actually, ya know, USE the balance ball/yoga mat/resistance band that are stacked like a modern art sculpture in the corner of my office. I could definitely watch less TV and spend less time lazing around the internet.
During this month I'm not really putting too much stress on myself about pole. It's National Novel Writing Month, for which I am teaching a weekly group class as well as participating, so writing is at the top of my "what to do with my free time" list until December.
Something that's been discussed in the forums recently, or maybe on someone's blog...shorter practice sessions. For the longest time whenever I tried to plan for a pole session, I would mentally block out *at least* an hour for it. But there are only so many hours in the day and always so much to try to fit into those hours, and pole always seemed to fall to the bottom of the list. And I'd get frustrated about not having an hour of my day that I could block out for pole/
It took a while to dawn on me that I don't *have* to block out a full hour. I can practice for 20-30 minutes and have a very focused session centered around a particular goal (spins only, inverts only, left side, floorwork, strength, etc.) instead of my usual lollygagging "what am I gonna do next?" pace for an hourlong practice.
Of course, this may get tougher in the winter, when I'm going to need longer to warm up the pole and my body to combat the dry cold air, but even there I can multitask a bit - start warming up the pole space, throw in a load of laundry (involves going up and down the stairs), take the dog for a short potty walk at a brisk pace, vacuum the pole space (also briskly) and maybe get my TV fix in while I'm wiping down & warming up the pole and stretching.
It can be done! But it's not easy and takes some planning. If I can do this at least once a week right now, that's all I'm asking of myself. Maybe after National Novel Writing Month is over, and the holidays have come and gone, I can adjust my life/schedule/priorities to make more of an effort to pole regularly, but in the end we have to realize, there's only so much we can do. Taking on too much is the fast lane to burnout.
