A challenging and oft discussed pillar of adulthood is efficient time management. It only gets more complex as you get older and begin to manage dozens of overlapping and conflicting engagements, all of which demand differing levels of focus and rigor.
In my experience, the issue can't be fully solved by any apps. Calendar and reminder apps help a great deal with tracking future activities, and to-do lists allow you to keep tabs on what you need to do on a given day, but there are shadowy corners these tools miss.
What I'm talking about are what I would call personal hobbies: things you do regularly that don't follow a given schedule and are maintained by you alone. An example of this is self-taught guitar; unlike taking guitar lessons, which mandates specific times and a particular place, self-taught guitar puts you as both the teacher and the student. Where, when and whether you practice at all is entirely your responsiblity. As such, these sorts of hobbies can become difficult to adequately manage.
Over the last couple of years, I've picked up quite a few hobbies, at differing levels of commitment. These include reading, writing, exercising, playing music, and many others. Attempting to practice all of them regularly has become a noticeable source of stress. At times, I find myself sprawled on the couch, worrying over which hobby to practice, only to end up not doing anything.
This is a well-known concept, known as decision paralysis. For me, this paralysis arises from the noble desire to be a jack of many trades conflicting with the actual limits of time.
So managing these hobbies becomes a self-interrogation of priorities. What do I really want to become great at? What do I enjoy occasionally? And finally, what can I turn into a part of my schedule?
I like to think of it as a big bag of differently sized objects. When I am in between scheduled events or have a free moment, I reach into the bag and pull out a different hobby. Some hobbies are larger than others and get pulled out more often. Others are smaller but have a nice shape and get pulled out during certain moods. Instead of trying to equally master every hobby you find or even see all your hobbies as something to master, you begin to practice your hobbies for their ultimate purpose: self happiness.
Playing guitar is by far my most favorite hobby. I do it every single day and I put a great deal of concerted effort to improve my craft. Reading is a lesser but still highly coveted hobby of mine. It takes more effort, but the literary rewards for doing so are greatly worth it. As a result, I often force myself to read even if it isn't exactly what I'd want to do in order to keep practice.
On the other side of the same coin, writing is a hobby I do purely for the love of the craft. While, of course, I'm always trying to improve my writing, I only really write when I want to and I only write what I want to. I recognize I will never be able to write like the greats and I'm okay with that.
This distinction is important because it allows me to more easily determine what to do at a given time. Most of the time, I will be playing guitar or reading. Occasionally, when I want to, I'll write. I derive joy from both without stressing too much over which to do.
Hobbies don't always have to be something to do or something to master; they should be a challenging, but ultimately fun endeavors. You keep them fun by recognizing which you do simply for fun and which few you want to try to master.
A last thought I have on keeping practice with your hobbies is accepting that you will never know everything about them. It can feel daunting when you are beginning to improve at something and you start to realize just how much there is to learn and how many skilled practitioners there are out there.
The more you learn, the more you realize you can learn; the area of possible knowledge always grows. As such, don't fret too much about how far behind you may be or how much you have left to learn. The more you practice, the more you immerse yourself in your chosen skills, the more likely you'll get to a place of mastery without even realizing it. And at that point, you won't even care!