Hey! Ok, Ive been playing for about 8 years now and I currently play in two bands. I also am a full-time college student and I have a full-time job. I have not been able to practice regularly for a few weeks now (other than band rehearsal) and every time I pick up a guitar I feel frustrated and left behind. I am very familiar with CAGED, the pentatonic, chromatic, and major scales. Stylistically I play rock and a little bit of metal and I would LOVE to learn Flamenco style. With my very limited time schedule I have to try desperately to find time to sit down and practice. So, here is my question.....Can you help me to create a practice schedule that will enable me to get the most out of each practice session, while at the same time challenging me to try new things (I often find myself playing the same stuff over and over)? If I could quit work and school and just play full-time I would but that is obviously not a realistic possibility. I just want to get better not feel stuck anymore. PLEASE HELP!!

I feel the same all the time. The only way I know of to get out of it is to keep playing and playing new stuff. You've had 8 years to get good. That's past....get to some difficult stuff
It's intimidating...but get stuck in. If you realize that you have a limited time, then spent most of that time learning new stuff instead of re-playing all the old stuff you know
Challenge yourself

practicing is the best way for your fingers for example if you dont have a much time so half hour daily keep your fingers working good

First of all - a huge apologize - i missed this topic totally

And regarding the topic - i like to stick away from schedules because some days i am in the mood for sweeping and some day for legato and if you have a schedule you are trying to follow, you will have to give the sweeping mood away and follow something you don't want to play that day. So, practice something you WANT that particular day. Of course, i mean practicing exercises, scales, any technique: AP, sweeping, legato, tapping and combinations.

Pick a few lessons from GMC - 5-6 lessons and exchange them each half an hour.

Practicing what you are in the mood for the day is really helpful if you have a short practice session. So, grab the guitar, just play random stuff for warm-up for 10 minutes and than hit whatever comes to your mind out of those 5-6 lessons you have, like: "Ok, today i am in the mood for this here lesson!" and it will work

Good luck and sorry for really late response - i missed this topic

The BEST article I've ever read on practicing is the one by John Petrucci in his Wild Stringdom book.
Absolutely fantastic. How he does it, is he accumulates a large filing cabinet and organizes all his material in 3 folders. Technique, Theory, Music or something similar.
Within each folder are smaller folders...for example, technique looks like this
Technique --->
-Alt. Picking
-Sweep Picking
-Legato
-etc...
And within each mini folder he has various exercises that he found interesting and filed away.
When it comes time to practice, he picks a topic, picks a random article and works on it for 15 mins or more, and then moves on. His exercises are different everyday, which keeps him interested, and on edge.
I've done this, and I now have a filing cabinet organized in a similar fashion, and it really does work wonders . Keeps you from playing the same exercise over and over.