I was coaching a student this week who is having a bit of a problem managing his time efficiently and make the most of studying and playing, while at the same time making time for his girlfriend and holding down a regular job.
During a recent 'Poker On The Mind Podcast' episode, Dr Tricia Cardner and I spoke about the importance of communicating well with your better half (and friends and family too). Together with this, it's important to make time for everything else in your life like exercise, work, meditation and playing the game.
One thing that works really well for me, and has been equally successful for some of my students, is creating a schedule and sticking to it. First of all you should use something like Excel to map out the hours you're awake across the whole week and then filling in the times when you're at work.
This is an example for those of you who work a 9-5.
(If you don't have a regular job and you're a full-time poker pro then you will need to adjust this schedule.)
The next step is to write down exactly what you want to do in the next week. For example:
See partner aka date night
Meditate
Exercise (gym, sport, walk etc)
Play poker
Study poker
Socialise
Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner
Family time
Once you've finalised your list of activities and responsibilities you should start to block out times when you'd like to do it all. Using something like Excel or Word will allow you to make quick edits to your schedule and make sure you fit everything in. Here's another example:
When you're happy with your first draft you should try it out for a week or two and move things around if needs be. Managing your time is as important as managing your money (bankroll) when it comes to both developing as a poker player and maintaining strong and healthy relationships with your loved ones.
Good luck!