Busy seasons end. The people you ignored during them don’t always stick around to see it.

Hard stretches make a reasonable case for dropping everything else, and the case holds right up until the stretch ends and you look around. Friendships rarely announce that they are being dropped; they just get quieter, and after enough months of one-sided effort the other person stops reaching. Nobody is at fault and the result is identical.

While you are inside it, keep the smallest possible contact alive. One message a week to two people, even a lazy one. It costs almost nothing and holds the thread until you have hours again.