Necrox

I develop one skill at time, doing a bit of it every day to make it more natural, like muscle memory, but I only try when I feel the need to learn it. I don't really play the drums, but I can imagine someone playing drums and that's good enough for me. Similarly, I no longer play the guitar, but I still can imagine an expert guitarist and sequence a realistic electric guitar as if that person was playing it.

If I do something with an instrument in a day, I usually end up aiming to recreate something I hear.

Do you find that you're a 'rewards-based' learner or incremental? I've been the former until recently, and we tend to be encouraged by demonstrable results and discouraged by not seeing immediate progress; it was a tough mental habit for me to break, and one that I still have to work on regularly. Easily caught up in 'broad strokes' learning, where you're getting a little bit of everything instead of perfecting the rudiments in each skill set. Not a seemingly direct answer to your question, but check out Josh Waitzkin's "The Art of Learning"; it definitely took away much of the anxiety/overwhelm I was experiencing trying to learn multiple new skills, especially while balancing work and personal life.

Since time (and how much of it I needed to be spending on any given task) is what seemed to be stressing me out the most, I started using a Pomodoro Timer app, and would break my skill building and all tasks into (up to 4) 25 minute chunks, punctuated by 5 minute breaks. So say I didn't want to go down the scale warmup rabbithole, I'd give myself maybe just one pomodoro on scales, then break the remaining 3 in to other things (one on jazz standards, one on shedding sixteenth notes, etc) still in the wheelhouse of improving that instrument/overall skill. And then maybe my next Pomodoro set will be tackling something in my DAW that I need to fix/figure out, or getting through a chapter in a composition workbook, or watching a tutorial video and taking notes, etc. Giving myself a limited time on this stuff made me get to the crux of techniques much quicker. I don't usually like time restrictions competing against creativity, but since it's more about developing vocabulary and efficiency in order to be able to express yourself to your fullest potential, thus contributing to your creative output, they go hand in hand I think. That said, I agree that if you're really engrossed in something and making progress, you don't have to cut yourself off...see it through and dig in.

For me, things came about as I needed to learn them.  Honestly, it may help to put yourself in uncomfortable situations.  For example: while in school (studying percussion), we were playing a piece where I needed to learn a very difficult steel drum part.  Now, steel drums are technically percussion, but the technique and note layout of the instruments are completely different than anything I've ever done before.  Normally I would say "no, I don't play those", but in this situation, I actually HAD to--so I busted my ass to meet the deadline of the performance.  The result?  I play steel pans now!
 
As a kid, I took piano and drum lessons at the same time, but stopped studying piano when percussion became more important.  I think I should also emphasize that those few years of piano lessons, which I haven't studied in a long time, really stayed with me.  Don't worry about studying everything a ton--focus on what you enjoy the most, and work on the other things when you have time.  Learning an instrument takes a long time, but it's a gradual process with a lot of cross-pollination.  You never know what opportunities will arise that will allow you to continue to hone those skills.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow!

A just-published review of the album!
 
http://carelessgamer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/album-review-oc-remixs-final-fantasy-2.html
 
It doesn't give too much away.

When that 2nd tune hit I got full body chills. I've been waiting since 2012 and this sounds great. That overworld remix at the end killed me. This is gonna be awesome.

There's a soundfont collection called Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra that I've seen get raving reviews. I didn't have much luck getting it running before, but when it did work, I was pretty impressed with the sound quality. Totally free of charge, and surprisingly good given the fact that it was built by one guy. Maybe give that a shot?