I really want to. Sometimes I do, for a month or two, then I don't touch it for 8 months. I've taken weekly lessons two different times, once for 6 months and once for 3 months. I even bought a guitar that I keep in my office at work. My coworkers come in and play it far more than I do.

I just have too many things that I want to do. If I could afford to retire, I could easily keep busy the rest of my life doing all the things I wish I could do right now.

Five minutes is something you can afford to spend even if you are very busy. Don't give me any more excuses. Instead of replying to this comment, spend the two minutes it would take to get off hacker news and play a few notes.

So I just spent 5 minutes playing a few scales. While I was doing that, I wasn't reading the book I'm almost finished, or writing in my journal, or thinking about side project I have going on, or emailing a friend that I haven't spoken to in a few months, or taking a short walk, or making a cup of tea, or making lunch plans with my wife, or sketching, or desoldering a bad relay in my espresso machine, or generally making 5 minutes of progress on any other hobby or project I have.

Now I probably won't touch my guitar again for another 3 months because the 5 minutes I can spare tomorrow will be spent reading or coloring a sketch I made or some other thing that I enjoy working on. You might point out that I'm wasting my time reading HN, but I get a great deal of enjoyment out of the things I find on HN.