Don’t you need to step off the gas in your life at some point during your work day? Between writing and gambling, between posting at social media and trading stocks and forex, I just want to play video games, no matter how unproductive that feels! Guilty as charged.
Today as I sat down to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Suzuka, Japan, I thought of doing a side-by-side comparison with my favorite racing simulator, iRacing. So, I put the steering wheel on the desk, loaded iRacing, drove a lap at Suzuka bringing my virtual Formula 1 car at the start line and waited for the real F1 race to begin. I then took some photos of my computer screen with my Samsung phone to show the similarities between the real and virtual racing.
The whole drill took me about 15 minutes and 5 more to write the story I shared at my social networks. Fortunately I didn’t have to upload the gallery more than once, as that is done automatically. You may read more about that in my most recent post about why I have been sharing my thoughts exclusively at Google+ nowadays.
That post received a comment at Facebook though, wondering how it is possible for me to find free time even for gaming.
The truth is, I don’t.
If only I had the time to play video games!
After I completed this minor iRacing project, I disconnected the gaming gear and even quit watching the Formula 1 race. The wife had just brought breakfast at home and we did spend about an hour sitting at the balcony, before I sat down at my office desk once again, to write these words. On a peaceful Sunday morning.
(Now it’s night time, since I am in the process of editing this post, adding the final touches. True, this post took almost a day to be published, due to a pretty busy day. And that’s a Sunday!)
You see, I think 24 hours are way too short to make the most out of my day. I am sure you have the same feeling. Even 48 hours seem not enough to accomplish all those things you want in your life. Take me for example. I spend:
- 2 hours almost daily hitting the gym in the morning or biking/walking. Cooling down and bath time included.
- At least 10 hours working on the computer even on weekends. Work includes answering emails, discussing advertising and partnership deals, filing my company’s paperwork, blogging obviously, becoming active at social media by participating in discussions and writing short posts there, keeping fans and followers connected. And I have only just started. The work list also includes reading other gambling blogs, finding new investing ideas, monitoring the US stock market, trading the US markets and forex, keeping an eye on sports and online poker (occasionally playing too), writing for partners and taking care of every other miniscule detail, in order to be well informed about the online investing and gambling industry. Computer time is also needed to pay bills online, solve computer problems my relatives deal with and of course upgrading my computer from time to time.
- An hour for eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. And I am being optimistic here, since those oranges aren’t going to be squeezed all by themshelves! Not to mention keeping the kitchen clean after each… raid!
- A vague amount of time for eating out, going out with friends, watching a movie at home now and then and generally socializing in the real world!
- An unpredictable amount of time for taking care other stuff for the family, like paperwork at civil service offices, visiting doctors, taking the car for service and… watering the plants (yes, that takes me about 20 minutes the least each week!). If you happen to have children, I assume your schedule to be a lot more hectic. I myself will find out about that next year.
I suppose most people’s daily schedule is similarly crammed. So, how on earth did I fit video gaming in my daily routine?
I didn’t!
That’s why I am complaining all day long to my wife that I constantly run out of time! If only I could play video games daily. Yet, I feel so guilty of not being productive each time I sit down and play a video game that I seldom do it nowadays, despite having noticed that video games improve my investing!
Do you feel the same?
Jared Bates posted this at his Google+ feed. It’s like me talking there!
Priorities, priorities, priorities!
Today I talked this very thing with the missus. How is it possible to find the time to do all the things you love?!
The answer? You just do a little bit of everything.
Sure, but that goes against the general idea, which states:
You have to specialize if you want to succeed.
She herself insists that in order to excel in something, you have to focus on that particular thing. You want to be a good gambler? Focus on gambling. You want to be a good investor? Focus on investing. You want to be a good stock trader? Focus on stock markets. And if you want to be an excellent US stock day trader, you must focus on daily charts of NYSE stocks specifically!
Indeed, you have to be that choosy, if you want to make money in gambling. And even then, you are going to trade 5 to 10 stocks at most! Specialization is equally important in online gambling and investing, as in other fields of work. Narrowing down your options will turn you into a profitable gambler sooner than later.
Thus, we do have to put priorities in our daily schedule, even for the smallest thing. Personally, I have reduced my sleep and gym time, to make room for more blogging, investing and social networking.
But even if I had just a single thing to do during the whole day (be it blogging, or gambling, or gaming, or… cooking!), that also needs fine-tuning. Here’s a good example the wife told me today:
“If I only read books all day long, I would quit in case I simultaneously read 10 books, jumping from one to another!”
Whoa, that was so well put, that in fact led me to write this very post!
Although we do have to focus on the things we care the most, we also have to do it right!
Can I be the best video gamer, writer, gambler and investor all at the same time?
Undoubtedly, no.
Do I want to be an excellent iRacer? You bet I do, but at this point in my life, I simply cannot spend so much time in iRacing or any other video game for that matter. Do I want to be a good poker player? Sure, who wouldn’t, right? Still, I need to spend a lot of my time reading books and taking part in online poker discussions, while improving my poker skills, if I want to beat the opposition.
How about becoming the best stock or forex trader, the best gambler, the best gamer out there?
That all sound wonderful, but I’m convinced they cannot be accomplished all at the same time. And because of that I am only trying to become a good writer in general for the time being. That won’t be easy, I am sure, since I am not a native English speaker. Then again, why shouldn’t I try improving my writing skills, while sharing what I have learnt the past 10 years gambling and investing? Perhaps, newcomers in the online gambling world will appreciate the help.
In the end, it’s now how I say it, rather what I say!
Nevertheless, writing about video games is still considered writing the last time I checked. So, why won’t I write occasionally about other hobbies I enjoy, like video games or web designing? We might share the same hobbies other than gambling after all. Or perhaps you just found me searching for video games. Please, stay away from gambling. and come back only when you have done your homework and know how gambling really works.
So yes, no matter how much packed my daily schedule is, I will always try doing what I love the most. And in the meantime I will also spend some time on my favorite non-money-making hobbies, even if that feels unproductive. I just want to play video games, people…
