The number one reason poker players are poker players is because the job comes with an enormous amount of freedom. The freedom to start the day at 2pm; the freedom to travel; the freedom for extended vacations. It’s not a surprise that this freedom has lead to a group of unstructured lives. I have premium membership and feel very guilty about it.

By the time of our deaths, we must have spent around 40-45% of our time sleeping; that is a lot of wasted time. I said wasted time not because sleeping is a wasted activity. It is not and is obviously important for our health. I said wasted time because I can sleep less and use that extra time to improve other areas of my life. Let’s assume by the time I’m 80, I feel great regarding my accomplishments and knowledge. But if I had to look back and see how much time I wasted, I would be on tilt even on my way to whatever destination you arrive after death.

The easiest solution to shorten my sleeping time while maintaining great health is to exercise. Instead of sleeping an extra 15 minutes per day, I use those 15 minutes to jog or walk around the neighborhood/park or meditate. I still have the same amount of time to accomplish whatever I want to accomplish when I reach 80.

A second solution is to have a schedule. Although the idea of a poker player maintaining a schedule sounds oxymoronic, it cleans up the wasted segments in our lives (5 minutes here, 10 minutes there adds up quickly). During these segments, we can take short naps, read a Time magazine to keep up with the world news, meditate, or call up a friend to say hi. These activities enrich one’s life and give us balance. It also help those around us because we are in better moods and we will be more successful, which means we increase our ability to help.

I don't remember ever making a new year resolution. My goal for this year is to average 15 minutes per day walking/jogging/meditating and add a little more structure to my life.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment