An all too common day

Yesterday, I woke up around 11am, fed my dog and let him out for a few mins, decided I was too tired to stay up and went back to sleep. Eventually 1pm rolls around and I finally get up. I take a quick shower and then take my dog on his afternoon walk for 30 mins or so.

By the time I get back it’s nearing 2pm and I’m pretty hungry. I throw a couple eggos in the toaster and see what’s on tv. I end up settling on history channel show title The Crumbling of America about how most of the roads, bridges and dams in the US are 40-50 years old now and were originally made with a design life of 50 years so they’re all falling apart. Turns out only 9% of the stimulus package or something like that was spent on infrastructure and its going to become a huge problem in the coming years. Anyways, I find it decently interesting but by 2:30 or so I’m done eating breakfast and continue to watch. 3pm rolls around and I realize it’s a two hour program. Guess I gotta finish it now right? 4pm rolls around and the program finally wraps up.

Time to get some stuff done. I give my local bar a phone call to check on ATM contract status but he’s not there so it’s nothing unusual really. Tomorrow I leave to go back to NC for a wedding and I know I need to pack, clean up and drop my dog off with the dog watchers before the day’s done. I start cleaning some stuff off my desk and notice a deposit slip to Wamu (Washington Mutual Bank). Before I throw these away I like to check online to make sure the account balance is accurate. I try logging in but am transferred to chase.com (who recently bought out Wamu) and it forwards me to my chase.com credit card account not my Wamu checking account like I wanted. I call the support number on the back of my credit card and spend 20 minutes on the phone trying to get it figured out getting forwarded back and forth between the two companies. Eventually I realize the number I’m trying to reach is only open 9am-7pm though it must be EST because they are closed at this time. I become frustrated but I guess I will have to wait til tomorrow to take care of this. It’s now 4:30. I waste 30 mins or so browsing the usual poker blogs, 2+2, CR forums etc.

5pm and I’m hungry again. I heat up some enchiladas and feed my dog dinner. I watch an episode of the Simpsons while I eat. After the show I start packing up some of my dog’s stuff for the dog watcher. Then I take him out on his evening walk. By the time I get back it’s 6:30 or so. I call my gf who’s already back in NC and talk to her for a bit. I read a book for an hour or so until 8pm rolls around. I told the dog watcher I’d drop him off at 9pm and it takes 35 mins to get there so I pack the rest of my dog’s stuff up – cage, food, bowls, leash etc and get him in the car. End up getting there around 9pm, explain the usual how to take of my dog stuff and take off around 9:20. I stop at DQ on the way home and get a chocolate chip blizzard. It’s tasty but before getting it I decide I better go to the gym for a quick run later tonight.

I get back around 10pm and I’m kinda tired. I sit down on the couch with my laptop and check my e-mail, cardplayer, poker blogs etc. I end up stumbling across Steve Pavlina’s blog which is fantastic btw and read it for a couple hours. The dude hasn’t had an employer since the ’90s. He lives in Vegas and makes all his money from various passive ways, most of which are online, but he’s not a poker player. It’s a blog I can relate to as I also don’t have an employer and make most of my money online, but it’s a non poker blog so it’s a welcome refresh from the usual bad beat whining or daily up and down grind that is poker. This guy’s been doing it for years and has really figured out how to do things right in my opinion. It’s like listening to someone with 10 years experience and a lot of success in my field. Check out his “best of” links and his How to become an early riser article.

At this point in my life I’ve been a “professional” poker player for a year and a half but far too many days are spend just coasting through the day with not much of a plan. I play when I want, do what I want when I want. It’s all very unprofessional. I don’t really feel like I have major leaks in my poker game (just a bunch of small ones) but my biggest leak in the world is probably sleeping in too late. It just sets up my whole day up for disaster. In the past I’ve tried to be up by 9:30am to start playing by 10am (I’ve strived for 2 hour sessions starting at 10am, 1pm and 4pm) but when I miss it and end up waking up at 10:30am I decide well I might as well skip the morning session and sleep until 11:30am so I can make the afternoon session. Before you know it I’ve turned what should have been a 6 hour work day into a 3 hour one.

When I get back from NC I’m going to try “practicing waking up” like he says and try to get up when my gf gets up to go to work at like 6:30am 7 days a week for the rest of the year. Impossible you say? Maybe, but I’m gonna give it my best shot, and I hope it works out and I’m able to really put in some serious hours and hands when I get back home next week.

Anyways, back to the day’s highlights. Fast forward to 1am when I finally get the laptop closed and I realize I’m pretty tired and wish I could go to bed but I can’t. I haven’t even accomplished any of the things I knew before the day even started that I need to do. I spend the next two and a half hours packing, taking out the trash, vacuuming, doing laundry, loading the dishes, cleaning off my desk and countertops and making and eating a peanut butter sandwich. By the time I’m done it’s 3:30am and I have to wake up at 9am the next day for my flight. It’s one of the few days out of the year that I have an obligation the next morning so I HAVE to wake up at a predetermined time. If it weren’t for my flight I have little doubt that I would have spent the next day sleeping in til noon and then procrastinating browsing the internet or watching tv much of the day before it’s late at night and I realize I haven’t played as much poker as I should have that day or that I regretfully “didn’t have time” to make it to the gym to work out that day. It’s a vicious cycle that repeats itself. When I get back next week I hope to finally break it and start finally logging some serious hands, working out much more regularly and most importantly waking up early regularly.