On the days that, for whatever reason, I can't play poker, I spend much of my time with recordkeeping and other details.
I keep a planner, one page for each day, and I write down all of the things that I want to accomplish that day, or I make notes for future days. Yes, I actually write, with a pen. I'm not interested in a digital planner, because I'm not going to get on a little phone or tablet screen and enter the seven steps needed to solve a complicated technical problem with my poker software. It's quicker and easier to write it down.
I'm cheap, so I didn't buy a physical planner. My planner is a binder with one page of notebook paper for each day of the year. Simple, functional, portable and inexpensive. I love technology but it's not always the best solution.
Yesterday I cleaned out my planner. It contained pages going back to early May. I looked at every page before I removed it to see if there were things that didn't get done, I consolidated those things on two pages of notebook paper and put them in the front of my planner, with the goal of tacking one of them about every other day.
Here are some of the things that I listed:
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Contact Avast to find out when I will have to renew my antivirus subscription.
Figure out how to get Holdem Manager 2 to work with Juicy Stakes poker.
Post room reviews in a poker forum. (I might post some of them in this blog as well.)
Add percentage calculations to my time sheet (this is a Open Office spreadsheet, not handwritten.) I don't just want to know how many hours a week that I work, I need to know the percentages. I especially want to make sure that at least 25% of my time is spent studying.
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I"m not just playing poker. I'm running a business. That's the way the IRS sees it, and that's the way I have to treat it. Again, this is not exciting or glamorous. Someone who does a job well always does extra things behind the scenes that you don't see . Doctors read medical journals. Pro football players study game film
My wife works at home. A half hour before she officially starts work she is setting everything up on her desk and two monitors so that she's ready to go when her shift officially starts
Successful poker players do the same things. We don't just play a card game. We study. We plan our sleep schedules so that we're rested enough to play long tournaments. We keep good records, both for our own benefit and for the IRS. Poker players have to pay taxes just like everyone else.
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