Monday Sales Call: A Brief Moment of Clarity

I had a moment of clarity last night. Well, that may be a little dramatic. Let’s call it a brief yet profound revelation.My Sundays are generally spent playing online poker tournaments. I mainly play cash games during the week when I have time but Sundays are reserved for MTTs (multi table tournaments). The prizepools are so much larger on Sundays and the fields are too weak to pass up on the oppurtuniry to hit a big score. I started this Sunday ritual about a year ago and have had a few nice scores.Throughout the past 12 months I steadily increased my MTT volume (the amount of tournaments I play at one time). I generally 6-8 table if I am at home (IBM Thinkpad) or 8-12 table if I play at work (duel screen set up). I won’t get into the math or theory but it is important to be aware of your stack size, your opponent’s stack size, and blind levels when playing tournaments.I realized last night that this increase in volume has lowered my expected value in MTTs. I don’t have the skill to play so many tables at one time. I pass up small edges by not properly examining my opponents play and the flow of the table. I believe this has decreased my overall ROI in tournaments and has honestly caused me to dread my Sunday grind. I got serious about poker because it was fun and I loved the competition and theory of the game. I honestly think the game isn’t as fun as it used to be. While it is still monetarily profitable, I feel like a robot.So what prompted this self examination? I will spare you the bad beat story. Suffice it to say, variance is part of the game. This got me thinking of what I can do to improve on aspects of the game which I can control. This thought process then lead to me thinking about my workday. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on optimally structuring my work schedule and tasks.A typical day for me involves 20-30 emails, 8-15 IM conversations, posting on several industry forums, and working on new projects for the company. As PAS has grown and my responsibilities have increased, I have struggled with keeping up with the volume of work and STILL working at an optimal level. This sounds familiar!With a plethora of IM conversations and emails going on at the same time, I typically find myself flustered. I find it hard to keep up with several conversations at one time. This is very well a result of what my doctor calls “A.D.D”. Apparently every male ages 12-30 in the U.S. has this aliment. Anyways, my emails/IM conversations consist of supporting affiliate’s businesses. I work with PAS Publishers on a daily basis to improve their conversions and user experience.I came to the conclusion that I can’t do all of these tasks at once. Answering emails, posting in forums and chatting on IM at one time is not my cup of tea. Others may be able to run this kind of gauntlet but I simply don’t have the attention span. I need to schedule my work day so that my tasks have time slots alloted for their attention. Emails from the previous night (many of our partners are overseas and several hours ahead of me) and the morning will be answered until lunch. After lunch I can hop on IM and talk shop with publishers. While on IM, I can browse industry forums and bookmark interesting threads/articles which I can read before I leave for the day. This gives me the time and energy to address situations/questions and the head space to work at an optimal level. It took me awhile, but I finally realized my brain works best when concentrating on as few tasks as possible.I truly love my job and aim to give Publishers the kind of service and attention I would expect myself from a business partner. While this revelation may seem elementary, such is life. Many issues in our lives, which may seem somewhat trivial to others, can be solved by simply stepping back and evaluating the situation from a far. Like poker, I strive to improve my performance at work, thus improving my ROI (Publisher’s Success!).Tony