Practice in conditions of lack of time / books of licks

[Kmatuhin]

Hello! Lately I have been feeling a lack of time to practice. In this regard, I would like to ask:
1. What type of practice for developing improvisation would you consider most effective, given a total of half an hour a day?
2. Are there any players on the forum who have gained progress from studying books with licks?
p.s. I'm not a beginner and I don't need to practice most of the basic things.

[mr. beaumont]

A half hour of copping licks from a record would serve you better than a week with a book.

[Jimmy blue note]

Not a direct answer to your question but I believe practicing imaginative thinking, deep listening and becoming fluent in the shaping of musical ideas, the parameters of phrasing, the building of solo ideas and a good familiarity with the language of phrases and developing ideas could give you a really good set of guidelines by which you use your available time wisely. These things don't require your practice time with the guitar.
For instance, if you copy the licks and phrases of somebody's solo, you might get the notes, but if you're listening to a lot of music while you're not with the guitar, you can learn to understand how and why these phrases came to be played, and extract the value of another's notes by knowing the context.

A solo is not merely the reiteration of some phrases that may be beyond your understanding at the moment, they're, in fact choices that are an artist's filtered experience based on the unique challenges of individual pieces.
If you understand pieces well, it gives you insight as a composer's perspective. This will, for sure, inform your ability to play personal and crafty solos. Learning this stuff comes through the ear. Listen to music. Learn to love and then to be in awe of what Sonny Rollins can do with one note. Look to others for inspiration but learn to craft your own choices during your practice time.

If you listen to a solo you love, and can imagine something you might do, SING IT, and you're a soloist. You're your own composer. Then use your crafting time to learn how those sounds, pauses, dynamics, notes can find their voice on the guitar.

I happen to believe this can make all the time with your instrument productive and satisfying.
Listen. Hear. Understand. Love. Be inspired. Play within your abilities and expand your own abilities.

[frabarmus]

Half an hour a day, to develop your improv skills: just do it! Improvise for a half an hour every day over a record, or even better, over a backing track, like Aebersold.

[AllanAllen]

A half hour of copping licks from a record would serve you better than a week with a book.

If I had a half hour this is what I would suggest. Play a major scale technical warmup first. Then learn by ear.

[Jimmy Smith]

I'd say focus on 1 tune and keep shedding it until you can improv on the changes fluently. That's where your gains come from. Dicking around on different things doesn't lead to proficiency as quickly.

Yes, you can cop licks from books, there's nothing wrong with that. The benefit from copping licks from music is you improve your ear and connection with the music. I do use licks that I've learned from reading tho.