A Disappointing Week

Why was my week disappointing?  Yes, I had a downswing, but that's poker.  June is still going to be a record online month, so a bad week isn't a big deal.  In a year when I'll play somewhere around 500 online tournaments, being up or down for one week barely matters

What I'm disappointed in is my performance.  A few minutes ago I finished my last tournament of the week.  I looked at the spreadsheet where I track my time and my hours were:

Playing, 26.75 hours
Studying, 7.50 hours
Administrative, 3.25 hours

Total hours, 37.5

That's unacceptable.  Another player who misses his* goal might not think it was a big deal.  It is in fact a very big deal.  I always have the same weekly goals, and they aren't about money.  Each week I need to study for 10 hours and work a total of at least 40 hours.

This is a big deal because:

1. My wife works 40 hours a week, sometimes more.  I should do no less.

2. If I want to be competitive at higher levels of poker I need to be studying.  Players who study understand the math and theory and they have a lot of tricks in their bag.  I'll get run over if I don't keep up.

3. I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and trouble moving information from short-term to long-term memory.  When my wife tells me about some future date or activity, I often stop her and say, "If I don't write it down it didn't happen."   Then I write it down on my calendar and in my planner.

I have a very high IQ, which for many years masked my disabilities.  I stumbled along and got a 2.6 GPA in high school, largely because I was a pretty good musician and got an A in all of my music glasses.  I failed to graduate from two different four-year colleges with three different majors.

Now that I know what I'm dealing with I can perform at a much higher level, but I can never let my guard down.  I'm easily distracted.  I study in an office with the door closed, sometimes wearing earplugs.  If I hear one spoken sentence on the television news, that might be enough for me to lose  focus for a few minutes.

After playing four tournaments yesterday I was sure that I got my 40 hours in for the week, but the numbers on my spreadsheet told a different story.  That's why I keep close track of everything, whether it's checking items off in my planner or typing in my hours on a spreadsheet after every tournament or study session.

I need to do better next week, and every week.

______________

*When those in a profession are predominately of one sex, for example, professional poker players, I use the masculine pronoun  (See article below about why more women don't play poker.)  For example, I would refer to a kindergarten teacher as "she" or to a bricklayer as "he" unless I knew otherwise.  If I was discussing high school teachers of unknown sex I would alternate my use of the masculine and feminine.

Why more women don't play poker:

https://www.mpn.poker/blog/why-most-women-dont-play-poker/