How can I make time for my friends when I'm so busy with work?

Sometimes work can also take over a person's whole life. This isn't right and can end up taking its toll on the person's mental health. Finding the correct balance is important. Try and make a schedule to do chunks of work and then leave some free time for your social life. Timing everything can be really helpful as some times people waste a lot of time without even realising.

Get yourself a planner or scheduler book/app to begin managing your time. A social life contributes to your overall wellness and will be important to your work success and burnout rate as well!

Work life balance is equally important as your commitment with your employer. Try scheduling regular personal time on your work calendar to ensure it's given the same priority.

Don't think of it as making time for your friends, think of it as making time for your own self care and part of caring for yourself is taking time out of your week/month to spend with people who care about you and make you happy. No matter how important and time consuming your work may be, everyone can take the time for a phone call. Start there. Texting doesn't count. A real, honest to goodness phone conversation with a friend using your actual voice. If you really can't take the time to go out to see your friends for a meal or a movie and they are too busy to come and see you one week, invite a friend to watch a 1 hr stand up comedy over Netflix in each of your respective homes with your face-time going, or at least your speaker phone. That way you can see and/or hear each other's laughter. :)

Making time for your friends doesn't mean that you have to physically hangout with them. A simple text message and checking in goes a long way. Your friends just want to know you care and will always be there for them. I know with COVID and work, it's tough to make time for friends, but they are in the same boat as you. You aren't alone in that you feel you should make for time for them. What works for me is just sending a message in my group chat. It takes my friends 2 days to answer back, but at least I know they are there for me. So try just reaching out, you'll be surprised how much of an impact that makes.

Prioritizing is very important. Setting realistic goals and going after what you want in order to succeed is very important. Self care is also important, so nothing is wrong if you hang out with friends. I do understand that you're busy with work, however, at some point you must take a mini break for yourself to relax and talk to people you know and trust outside of work. Having friends are great, and It really doesn't matter if you show up 10/100 times, at least you showed up. It's important that you take breaks and socialize with friends. So please make the effort to show up whenever you can. It's better to show than not show.