Psychology in poker: How do we fight procrastination? Part 5.

Hi, Guys!

I continue to consider how to use psychology methods in poker.

In two last posts, I talked about procrastination. How can we fight with procrastination? What to do if you want to study and to mastery playing of poker but you are interfered by some problems?

In my last post, I wrote about a situation where you don't know what to do. You have many ways to study poker and don't know how to start. Method of Daily Activity Schedule should help you with procrastination in this situation.

Problem

Let's imagine that you can't start to do something because you think that tasks are too difficult and not interested. So you think:

- What will I do in FlopZilla? I don't know how to use it.

- The theory is so boring. Why am I reading this?

- How will I be to analyze my hands? I don't know how to start.

You think about the entire task and fear to start because you don't know how to start, how to end, how to get results.

The Antiprocrastination Sheet will help you.

The Antiprocrastination sheet

David burns, author of the book I'm reading, suggests using the following table. Let me remind you that this book is not about poker, but the methods given in it can be applied to the study of poker. The book is called "Filling Good".

Let's see how Burns suggests using the table:

Each day write down in the appropriate column one or more tasks you have been putting off. If the task requires substantial time and effort, it is best to break it down into a series of small steps so that each one can be completed in fifteen minutes or less. Now write down in the next column how difficult you predict each step of the task will be, using a 0-to-100 percent scale. If you imagine the task will be easy, you can write down a low estimate such as 10 to 20 percent; for harder tasks, use 80 to 90 percent. In the next column, write down your prediction of how satisfying and rewarding it will be to complete each phase of the task, again using the percentage system. Once you’ve recorded these predictions, go ahead and complete the first step of the task. After you’ve completed each step, take note of how difficult it actually turned out to be, as well as the amount of pleasure you gained from doing it. Record this information in the last two columns, again using the percentage system.

If you want to practice with Flopzilla but fear the complexity of this task you can to break it down on a few steps:

- Watch a video on using Flopzilla;

- Repeat example from the video;

- Try to handle your own example;

Mark the expected complexity and satisfaction of each action before execution and the actual complexity and satisfaction after execution.

If you will do this work a few times you will feel light and simplicity. It may turn out that you imagined the complexity of the task to be higher than it actually is.