Thank you. And thanks to everyone else who said much the same thing.
Hmm, that provokes some thought. Usually "you have so many more things going on in your life than your parents/grandparents did!" is presented as an unequivocally good thing.On top of that, you've got a lot of formal obligations and other things tying up your time that didn't used to be as common back in the day. Not everyone has a job during school. Not everyone has martial arts classes and music lessons on top of their normal schooling to juggle all at once. Are these activities you've chosen, or are they obligations that have been placed on you? Even if you enjoy both, do you want/need to keep committing significant time to them right now in your life? Speaking from experience, it's entirely possible to take a break from martial arts and come back in a few years to take it up again. You might lose a step or two, but that old saying "it's like riding a bike" is true. I took four years off from my American Kenpo studies before coming back to it, so if that's a thing you have to do, it isn't the end of the world. The same is true of music lessons, though you sound more passionate about that so maybe you're less likely to want to take a break from that.
I've already dropped out of Girl Guides, so that helps.
Unfortunately, I do want to keep karate and music.
I'm not the GM, though I was initially planning to just take a break and work out some details of my homebrew. Now I think I'll let that be a fairly low-priority project.If your gaming group wants to meet more often than your schedule permits, you could suggest that they start a second game for when you're not available. It kinda sucks when many of the gaming stories start being ones that you weren't there to be part of, but you'll still have the current game and they'll probably let you join the other one too if your schedule frees up a little. Or if you're the GM, consider asking one of the others to take over for awhile so that you can relax and just be a player for awhile - it's less stressful and time-consuming.
And, though I feel a bit guilty for being happy about this, a few of my gamer friends seem to be getting reminders that their schedules are difficult too. So I predict fewer requests to "play again tomorrow, it's Saturday right?"
Yes. So far it's excellent for time management, I just need to ask about some chores that are scheduled in advance instead of randomly selected every morning. (Usually by note, because my parents leave very early for work and, though I've tried, I can't wake up that early.)I definitely third, fourth, or however many the suggestion of writing down your schedule. This not only gives you concrete evidence of how busy you are whenever a friend or family member thinks you're blowing them off, but it also is a useful time management tool in its own right. If you know you only have X amount of time for music practice, it can help you get started instead of procrastinating for half an hour while you browse the forums, Facebook on your phone, or other ways you might be losing time during your day without realizing it.