on the days you can't meditate
If you're past the stage of meditation where you no longer feel the need to use an app to guide your practice, I have some advice. But before that, I would like to add that there is noting wrong with using apps and guided meditations. I still utilise them from time to time, and they have their place.
However, the idea of meditation is not just to get good at meditation. The purpose is to equip yourself to be better at life. You need to be able to remove the support of the app, like stabilisers off a kids bike, and still keep a balanced mental state and perspective, as you would during meditation.
You can't always have an app with you during the difficult points life, and this is why I think the sooner we learn to meditate without supports, the more effectively we'll be able to integrate our practice into daily life.
Now I've explained the value in this, here's my advice to those people at that stage of their practice...
It's inevitable that there's going to come a time where you just can't squeeze your meditation in that day, no matter how dedicated you are. When this happens, it's likely you will already have a clear sequence of steps to go through in your meditation. This is the difficult part, because you're unguided, but it will pave the way for you to make quicker progress.
For example, you may say a mantra, then set your intentions, then contemplate some scripture, then focus on the sensations of breath at the nose (anapanasati) before dissolving your awareness into your full body, and then dedicating the merit of your practice. In any particular order.
This may take some time, and my personal practice is actually much simpler than this due to my life commitments at the moment, but the principle still applies.
All you need to do, however, is just run through your steps in your head when you get chance, even if walking or commuting, or any other ample opportunity. This way, you keep the neural pathways strong in your brain. And the next day when you do sit down to practice, there is less uncertainty and friction to your meditation practice.
I've been doing this on my busy days and it's really helped me to keep my practice afloat during hectic periods my life.
I'm writing this to my future self as much as anyone else, but I hope whoever reads this may find it useful, even if applied to something other than meditation.