Discipline / being lazy

[TheStudent]

How do you guys work on your discipline? I basically suck with everything in life when it comes to discipline. Study, poker, doing laundry, cleaning etc. So far, it was never really a problem because everything would be allright in the end. But with poker, things are different. If I don't play, I can't win, and I can't move up. I also realized that if I continue like this, I will never get anywhere. ''Time to change''. I also sport 5 times a week, but I can decide what time to train (fitness). Would it maybe be a good idea for me to write down the times when I want to play/study/sport every day?

For example:

7:00 wake up
8:00-9:30 sports
10:15-16:00 study
16:00-18:00 eating, chilling
18:00-22:00 poker

The 3 days I don't sport in the morning, I would watch a coachingvideo instead of sports.

Do you guys think this might be a good idea? Or are there better things to get some discipline like reading some books or do some other homework like exercises? Or is this change ''too much'' at 1 time? I can also start with just poker each day from 19:00 till 21:00. I really don't know what to do, I am just sick of being ''the lazy student'' who really doesn't do anything.

[robbyd86]

I think this is a HUGE problem for not only poker players, but anyone who is their own boss. Having no structure and the ability to move schedules around sounds great, but can also lead to situations like yours. I think having a daily schedule is a good idea. You could also just set a # of hands you want to put in for that day and make sure you do it. If you google "self discipline books" you'll find a number of results on this subject, however I haven't read any of them and couldn't tell you if they're any good.

As far as studying for poker, this video is the nuts! Steel108 goes pretty in depth about his study routines.

Hope this helped, gl!

[JamesMa]

ive found writing down what you want to accomplish in a day is really helpful. Its weird how much of a difference it makes compared to when you just have it in your head what you want to get done. Scheduling set times to perform certain tasks would I think be even more efficient

[TheStudent]

Tnx guys. I made another schedule (something like 1.5 hour poker in morning, sport, study, 1.5 hour poker evening) and hopefully I can do it.

[meliniak]

indeed, writing it down should be helpful. a psychologist once told me that without having your statements written, it's easier to begin to shift away from them. gl with ur plan student.

[Eu.Era]

I think if you can do something you love like sports 5 times a week then you are more than capable to take poker just as seriously. It is most likely bad habbits associated with poker and not your personality in general imo.

Writing down a routine is a good idea.

[fuser1986]

I have started to use my calendar on my computer and iphone to remind me what I have planned and what my schedule per day looks like (god bless my gf. shes super organized.). Even before that I just use to have things in my head and never follow what I was supposed to do. Even most of the time I would just simply end up forgetting to do something. So I think setting a set schedule like you have done already writting it down and putting it into your phone for reminders etc or even on a board will help immensely and keep you on your toes.

[Rolling chances]

goal setting e.g i set a goal for myself that i want to move up to 50 nl in 2 months. To do that i set an amount of $750 and broke it down of how much i need to attain per week from my starting amount. I seem to be doing better now that i know what i want to achieve and how long i want it to take me.